Fast-track court to try Rohtak rape-murder case

Chandigarh/New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) Breaking his silence on the brutal rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman in Haryana, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday said the Rohtak case will be tried in a fast-track court and the guilty will not be spared.

Interacting with the media in New Delhi, Khattar said such heinous crimes would not be tolerated at any cost and that the guilty would be punished.

He said that those involved in the Gurugram rape incident would also be punished.

The Haryana Police have formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the crime.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the brutal gang-rape in Haryana -- reminiscent of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case in Delhi, the National Commission for Women (NCW) had on Sunday sought a fair and speedy trial in the case.

NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said on Sunday: "We have written to the officials concerned to ensure a speedy and fair inquiry. We have also sent a team to inquire into the matter."

A young woman from Haryana's Sonepat district was abducted, gang-raped and brutally murdered. The woman went missing on May 9. Her body was found on the outskirts of Rohtak town, 70 km from the national capital, early on Friday.

The rapists had allegedly inserted a sharp-edged weapon in her private parts. Police also said that sedatives were found in her stomach. Her head and face were smashed with a blunt object and later crushed under the wheels of a vehicle, according to the police, to hide her identity.

Two men, including her neighbour Sumit who was stalking her, were arrested. He was pressurising her to marry him but she had refused.

Police officials alleged that Sumit planned the gang-rape and murder to teach a lesson to the woman.

Stray dogs had eaten the victim's face and lower portion of her body, which was spotted by a passerby on a vacant plot of the Industrial Model Township (IMT) near Rohtak town on May 11.

The incident happened only days after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded to four convicts in the December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang-rape case.

The distraught parents of the victim have demanded immediate death penalty for the accused. The mother of the victim said on Saturday that she wanted to kill the accused herself.

Police officials said that more men could be also involved in the gruesome gang-rape and murder.

S.K. Dhattarwal, Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, said that the post-mortem examination of the body indicated sexual assault, mutilation of private parts and murder.