The Haryana Police are yet to get a conclusive lead to crack the Jind rape-murder case, but the post-mortem report and details given by 15-year-old Sheetal’s (name changed) family present some troubling facts.

The details indicate that the class 10 student may have been alive for at least another day after she went missing on January 9.

She and Gulshan, both residents of Jhansa village, were last spotted at around 5 pm on January 9 near the Markanda pool of the village.  Gulshan, 19, was the prime suspect in the case until his decomposed body was recovered from the Bhakra canal on the night of January 16. The girl’s mutilated body was recovered from a tributary of Bhakra canal, some 110 kilometres away from the village, on January 12.

The report of Sheetal’s post-mortem, which was conducted on January 13, was accessed by Newslaundry. It shows that the “probable time” between her death and the examination is “about 36 hours”, indicating that she could have very well been alive at least until January 11 — two days since her disappearance.

Moreover, according to Sheetal’s mother, her daughter had eaten rice (made with salt, onion and turmeric) and aloo-matar sabzi (potatoes and peas) barely two hours before she disappeared. However, the contents of food she had eaten at home differs from the contents of the semi-digested food found in her body during the examination. The semi-digested food found in her body included rice, lentils and tomato.

This indicates a possibility that Sheetal had had another meal after she left home. Both her mother, Swarna and father, Surendra Kumar, said that none of Sheetal’s friends have informed them of having met her or giving her food after she left home for tuition.

However, Deputy SP Dheeraj Kumar, who is investigating the case, said, “There could be a possibility that this was undigested food from other meals that she had eaten earlier.” Nevertheless, Kurukshetra SP Abhishek Garg told this correspondent that the police is also looking into the possibility of abduction. When asked about the findings of the food samples, Garg told this correspondent, “We have considered this in the investigation and are looking into these angles too.”

Considering the fact that the three doctors who prepared the report have mentioned these details but withheld from confirming sexual assault until they receive the “analysis of oral, perineal, vaginal … swabs and smears preserved for detection of seminal fluid and spermatozoa” indicates that the doctors were sure about the timing of death and the food sample to say the least.  They have sent these samples to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL).

Right from the point of not registering the missing person’s first information report on January 9 to allegedly torturing the friends and family members of the so-called prime suspect Gulshan, this has been a botched up investigation by the Haryana Police.

The initial investigation was focused on Gulshan. However, when Gulshan’s decomposed body was found at Bhakra canal’s Bateda head, some 25 kilometres downstream from the village, the police’s theory fell flat.

Importantly, local sources said that the bodies from nearby districts keep surfacing in the canal. “In summers it takes four to five days for the body to surface on the top and in winters it takes around seven days,” said a local police official. Gulshan’s decomposed body was found on January 16, seven days after he went missing.

Sheetal’s body was found on January 12, three days since her disappearance, from a tributary of the Bakhra canal in Jind’s Budha Kheda village. Her body had 19 injuries, her liver was ruptured and ovary was displaced as a blunt object had been inserted in her private parts. This triggers the question around whether her body was dumped near Jind or did it travel through the canal. Local police sources said that there is no possibility that the girl would travel 110 kilometres downstream.

“We are looking at both possibilities of whether the body was thrown into the canal or was it dumped,” said SP Garg. However, he confirmed to Newslaundry that, “her lungs had water which is indicative of drowning.”  It is important to note that her body was not decomposed like Gulshan’s.

Meanwhile, even 1o days after the incident was reported, the police is yet to arrive at any conclusive break in the case. A concrete line of investigation is yet to be decided upon. So much so that on the evening of January 19, several senior police officials including SP Garg, huddled up at Jhansa village’s panchayat bhawan, were still debating on the possible motives of the crime. All that SP Garg has to say is, “We are looking at all possible angles.” He added that the local criminal gangs, drug-addict groups “smacky” active in the area as well as those with doubtful character will be zeroed in on.

For the past two days, the police have been calling up people whose mobile phones were active on January 9 in the range of Jhansa’s mobile tower.

There are a few glaring questions about the registration of the case itself. Surendra Kumar, the girl’s father, had approached the police on January 9. However, the registered FIR says that the police got the first information only on January 10. He told Newslaundry “9 tarikh ko raat lag bhag 11 baje ko complaint humne Jhansa police station ko likh ke di (We reported that she was missing on January 9 around 11 in the night.)”

But the first FIR registered, accessed by Newslaundry, says that the first information of the incident was received at 1 in the afternoon and the diary entry was made at 1:25 pm. Responding to a question on this, a senior police official told this correspondent, “Ab shuruwat mein galti ho gayi, kya kar sakte hain (Our officers made a mistake in the beginning, what can be done now?)”

The representatives of the National SC-ST commission, who met the families of the deceased on Friday, said that the concerned officer has been suspended. Station in-charge Ram Pal was suspended for initial goof-ups.

The police had picked up a class 9 student, Uday Singh, of the same school, who had last spotted the duo. According to his family members, he was released on the day Gulshan’s body was found. However, the police didn’t bother to check the CCTV footage on the temple from where Singh had spotted the duo until January 14. “The police came to check the CCTV footage a day after the girl’s body was handed over,” Shant Kumar Sharma in-charge of the temple said. The said pool or over-bridge on the canal is a few metres from here.

Importantly, when National SC-ST commission member Raj Kumar was asked whether the police had handed over the details of all CCTV cameras installed in the village, he, in a very unconvincing manner, said, yes. But he was unwilling to share the details. Later in the evening this correspondent spotted police officials looking for CCTV cameras in the lanes that led to the tutor’s house from the girl’s house and those near the panchayat bhavan.

Interestingly, Gulshan was made the prime suspect in the case. Kumar said that he had never named him a suspect in the case. She and Gulshan had not turned up for the tuition classes on January 9 at Naresh Khurana’s house. Even Khurana, who runs the school where they studied, claimed that he didn’t name him as a suspect in the case.

On Friday, Gulshan’s family demanded a CBI inquiry when the representative of the commission met them.

Meanwhile, rape will be confirmed only once the forensic report is out. Though the police have now registered the FIR under sections of gang-rape, kidnapping, POCSO Act and SC and ST Atrocities Act.

Amidst all this, the final stance of the police remains, “We are looking into all possibilities,” and the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state is asking “not to politicise the matter” instead of cracking down heavily upon its police.

Read here: #JindRapeCase: Two families share their grief