Dilip Kumar

Nayagarh: A day after arresting one person in the sensational kidnapping and murder of five-year-old Nayagarh girl ‘Pari’, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Odisha Crime Branch on Monday has clarified that it has sufficient evidence against the arrestee, who is the prime accused in the ghastly crime.

"The SIT has acquired sufficient evidence against the accused. After interrogating him multiple times in the last ten days, we got vital evidences, on the basis of which we have arrested him. I would like to confirm the fact that this man is the prime accused. Any of his associates’ involvement in the case is still under investigation," said SIT chief Arun Bothra while reacting to media at Jadupur in Nayagarh district, the native village of the deceased minor girl.

"With minimum number of officials, our team has done great job in a short span of time. I personally satisfied with the outcome of our work", he added.

Explaining further about the investigation, Bothra said the preliminary step of an investigation is to detect the case first and then the arrest. The investigating team had tried hard to establish the motive of the crime first, he said.

"During the course of investigation, we found that sexual assault was the main reason behind the crime. As of now, we have completed two stages of the investigation--case detection and arrest. But, the investigation is not yet over. We will continue our investigation and submit charge-sheet in the court accordingly once the probe gets completed. Then the trial will begin in the court," the officer maintained.

Bothra informed that the team will produce the accused in POCSO court in Nayagarh today and file a plea seeking his remand to interrogate him more for further information.

The probe team has also planned to conduct a press conference to share details of the investigation after the accused was produced in court, he added.

The SIT, in a release on Sunday, had stated that the arrested accused had been booked under sections 376-A, 376AB, 364, 302, 201 of IPC, apart from Section 6 of POCSO Act.

Though the SIT has arrested a person from Jadupur village, his identity is yet to be disclosed.

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