Shimla: The Special Investigation Team today arrested six persons for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl at Kotkhai in Shimla district.

Shimla: The Special Investigation Team today arrested six persons for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl at Kotkhai in Shimla district.

They are Ashish Chauhan (29) alias Ashu of Sharaal village in the Mahasu area of Kotkhai, Rajender Singh (32) alias Raju (driver of a pick-up van) of Hiliala village, Subhash Singh Bisht (42) and Deepak (29) alias Deepu, both residents of Pauri Garhwal, Suraj Singh (29) and Lok Jung (19) both from Nepal.

“There was no planning to commit a crime and it was a case of ‘opportunity crime’ and we have physical, technical, forensic, circumstantial and confessional evidence against them,” said DGP Somesh Goyal, while addressing mediapersons.

The viscera report was awaited and the police claimed that there was enough evidence, including call details of the accused, bites on breast, DNA and confessional statements. All accused had been living in Kotkhai for many years.

Inspector General of Police (Southern Range) Zahur H Zaidi, who is also heading SIT, said the pick-up driver Raju, the main accused, was known to the victim and sometimes dropped her. On July 4, when the victim was on her way back home, Raju, who was accompanied by other accused, offered her lift and after offloading some horticulture equipment at a farm, he took her to an isolated place.

The accused under the influence of alcohol raped her and after the act, she was strangulated, Zaidi said, adding that the spot where the crime was committed and from where the body was recovered was the same. Both human and technical intelligence was used and 84 persons were questioned and 28 call details were screened.

Following some inputs, call details of Ashish, who was active on mobile, was screened and it was found that on the evening of July 4, he was not active on the cellphone which raised suspicion and during interrogation, he gave clues which helped in arresting other culprits, Zaidi said.

As some photographs were circulated on the Internet regarding the case, the DGP has appealed to the people to desist from circulating unverified news and photographs related to the case on the social media which is making the work of SIT more difficult and cautioned that such posts can attract civil and criminal liability.

The police had registered a case under Sections 302, 376 and Section 4 of the POCSO Act. The girl, a student of Class X, had joined the government school at Mahasu just one-and-a-half month back.

Widespread protests by students, political and social organisations and Mahila Mandals seeking immediate arrest of the culprits mounted pressure on the police.