The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has recommended exhuming the body of a 12-year-old girl from Assam, who died under mysterious circumstances in the house of an Arunachal Pradesh MLA.
No FIR
This was because the State police had the body buried in neighbouring Assam without an FIR (First Information Report) and autopsy, while MLA Techi Kaso’s family had allegedly destroyed evidence that could have established the cause of the girl’s death on May 20.
Mr. Kaso represents the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) from the Itanagar Assembly constituency.
The minor girl from Line No. 4 of the Dolahat Tea Estate in north-eastern Assam’s Lakhimpur district was reportedly found hanging in the house of lawmaker Techi Kaso at Burung Basti in Naharlagun town, about 15 km from Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar.
“We had the FIR filed after a team from NCPRC and Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) went to investigate on June 1 after verifying reports on the girl’s death,” NCPRC member Rosy Taba said on Friday.
To know cause
The police in Naharlagun, she said, has been asked to properly investigate and submit a report. “Since the body was buried without any post mortem, we have recommended exhuming it for knowing the cause of death,” she added.
ASCPCR chairperson Sunita Changkakoti said the police claimed the 12-year-old girl committed suicide. “But her death does not seem so. The room where she died was dismantled, people in the MLA’s house had brought her body down before the police arrived, and the dupatta with which she was said to have hanged herself was burnt,” she said.
The ASCPCR did not rule out the possibility of the girl having been a domestic help since her parents had been working at the MLA’s house for 30 years. “While the role of the police is questionable, this incident amounts to violations under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986,” she said.
