The CBI on Saturday made their first arrest in the Nadia rape case. The probe agency arrested Ranjit Mallick from the Ranghat area of Nadia district. "The suspect held today, a friend of the local leader's son, had been hiding in Ranaghat near National Highway 34. We traced him via mobile tower dump technology. We will be questioning him," the CBI official said when contacted. He had fled Hanskhali with his mother soon after the case came to light, he stated.
A total of three arrests have been made so far, but this is the first arrest by the investigative agency after they took charge of the case.
The central investigating agency has been directed by Calcutta High Court to probe the incident. The CBI should take the case for a "fair investigation into the matter and to instill confidence in the family members of the victim and also the residents of the locality and the state", the court said in its order.
The state investigating agency was asked to hand over all papers relating to the investigation, as well as the custody of the accused to the central agency. The matter has been listed for May 2.
A case under sections 376(2)(G) (gangrape), 302 (murder), 204 (tampering with evidence) of the IPC and relevant sections of the POCSO) Act was registered in the case.
The minor was allegedly raped on April 9 when she went to a birthday party of a local TMC leader's son in the Hanskhali area of West Bengal's Nadia district.
She died the next day. The victim's family alleged that the body was cremated without an autopsy under pressure from a local TMC panchayat leader, whose son Braj Gopal Goala (21) is the prime accused in the case. A police complaint was lodged five days after the incident on April 10.
The prime accused in the case, Braja Gopal Goala (21), was arrested. The second accused, Prabhakar Poddar, was later arrested based on Braja Gopal Goala's statement.