Shimla: CBI sleuths today scanned two routes in the Dandi forest to ascertain whether the rape and murder of a student was committed in the forest between Hilaila and Dandi or in some house or dera (a labour hutment).
After quizzing some teachers, students and family members, the CBI team is now zeroing in on quizzing two of her friends and a local shopkeeper, who had spotted the ill-fated girl on July 4.
The CBI team was trying to trace the location of mobile phones of some suspects when the girl went missing. The team is getting signals from three towers and it is a challenge to zero in on the suspects, revealed sources.
The parents and family members of the rape and murder victim told the investigators that the victim told her brother, who was busy in the school tournament at Bandh Kufar, that she would go home and left the school around 4.15 pm on July 4. She was accompanied by two girls until they reached a local shop and then the girls dispersed around 4.30 pm.
There are six more students and a school teacher, who went through Dandi to Tali and Shilguri villages, the native village of the victim, after 5.30 pm when the school tournament concluded on July 4. The family members also told the investigators that there were forest workers, who lived in tents near Dandi temple serai but they did not spot the girl walking back home between 4.30 pm and 7 pm that day.
The family members revealed that it took them not more than 30 minutes to reach the Dandi temple from the place where the body was spotted on July 6 at 8 am. “The spot is visible from Dandi road and from another road leading to apple orchards located below the forest,” they told the investigators, ruling out a possibility that the girl was raped and murdered on the spot, where the body was found.
A village team on July 5 searched for her till the Dandi temple till 12 midnight. Temple pujari-cum-labourer, who also worked with Rajinder (Raju), had told them that there was a leopard on the prowl in Dandi forest on July 4 they should be careful about it. Even local village women, including family members of the victim, were cautioned about the “Dandi ka rakshas” story to divert the attention of the family members, they added.