Tribal girl murder case: Main accused, 2 others held

Chaibasa (Jharkhand), Aug 12: The main accused in the brutal murder of a 13-year old tribal girl has been arrested along with two other suspected accomplices in West Singhbhum district with the police suspecting his involvement in another girl's murder.

Mathura Devgam alias Munda (19), the prime accused, was arrested today and he allegedly confessed to killing the girl on August 7, Superintendent of Police Michael Raj said.

The SP claimed that the accused set her on fire and crushed her face with a stone after she refused to have sex with him in a jungle between Dumradiha-Gunabasa villages under Mufassil police station area, the SP said.

Munda also confessed having brutalised and murdered another minor girl in a similar fashion for the same reason and at the same spot on March 31, the SP claimed.

The accused who appeared in the intermediate commerce stream examination this year, told police that he had started hating girls after his girlfriend refused to marry him, the SP claimed.

Police today recovered condom, liquor bottles and the clothes of the tribal girl from the spot based on the leads provided by the accused, the SP said.

The two other accused, Bora and Birendra, denied their involved in the above mentioned two murders but confessed to their involvement in the gangrape-murder of a minor dumb girl on March 31 in the same police station limits.

As the incident had not been registered then, police lodged a fresh gangrape and murder case against Bora and Birendra today.

The three also disclosed the names of two of their accomplices and a search was underway, police said.

PTI