A magistrate court here has recorded the statement of the Standard XI student, who was allegedly gang-raped outside a park at Seeranaickenpalayam on November 26, under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
A senior police officer, who is part of the investigation, said that the statement of the girl was recorded on Monday, the same day on which the Mahila court granted the police three days’ custody of the main accused P. Manikandan.
The police said that the confessional statement of the girl would play a crucial part during the trial of the case. According to the officer, the statements of Manikandan during the custodial interrogation matched with the statements given by five other accused in the case T. Rahul, 21, R. Prakash, 22, S. Karthikeyan, 28, S. Narayanamurthy, 30, from Seeranaickenpalayam and R. Karthik, 24, from Vadavalli.
During investigation, it was found that Manikandan took the lead in the alleged crime, said the officer. Efforts were under way to have the mobile phones of the accused subjected to analysis, the officer added.
Though the police was granted the custody of Manikandan till Wednesday, the investigation team completed the interrogation in two days and produced him before the court on Tuesday. The court sent him to judicial remand. The investigation team has not moved the court seeking custody of any of the remaining accused.
As per the First Information Report, the six men allegedly gang-raped the girl and assaulted her male friend when they came out from the park at Seeranaickenpalayam after celebrating her birthday around 8.30 p.m. on November 26.
