Nayagarh Minor Girl Murder Case: Family Of Accused Claim He Is Minor

Nayagarh: In a new turn to the kidnapping and murder case of a five-year-old girl in Nayagarh, family members of accused Saroj Sethi have claimed that he is a minor and threatened to move the court seeking intervention in the matter.

Chandra Bijayee Mishra, lawyer of the accused, said that his client should be treated as a minor and produced in the juvenile court.

"As per Saroj's High School certificate, his date of birth is February 6, 2003. It means, he was 17 years five months and eight days old on the day of occurrence of the crime," said Mishra.

He further said that Saroj was produced in the court as major but they will move court and submit all necessary documents to prove him juvenile.

As per reports, Saroj was earlier subjected to bone ossification test which revealed that he is above 18 years of age. The POCSO court in Nayagarh reportedly remanded the accused to three-day police custody for interrogation based on the ossification test report.

Earlier, the Orissa High Court deferred the hearing on the petitions seeking a CBI probe into the kidnapping and murder case to January 11.

A division bench of Justice B R Sarangi and Justice Pramath Patnaik adjourned the hearing on two PILs after the SIT chief submitted a status report on the investigation into the case.

The Odisha government had ordered a High Court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation keeping in view the gravity of the case and the failure by the police to make any headway even five months after the incident.