Gir Somnath, Oct 13: The Gir Somnath police have arrested Bhavesh Akbari and his brother Dilip for the murder of 14-year-old Dhairya. The police have sent teams to Rajkot, Ahmedabad and other places to question friends of the accused.
District Superintendent of Police Manoharsinh Jadeja told IANS, “Bhavesh had a suspicion that his daughter Dhairya was under the influence of an evil spirit and so he with the help of his brother Dilip murdered the girl. Both have been arrested.”
He said so far they have not found any evidence that suggests that the child was sacrificed for the family’s prosperity.
However, this is the theory of the villagers because Bhavesh and his brother cremated the girl without informing the village panchayat.
Bhavesh’s father-in-law Valjibhai Dobariya in his complaint at the Talala police station has alleged that first Dilip cooked up a story that Dhairya had contracted an infectious disease, had blisters on her body because of which she died. To ensure that others don’t get infected, they cremated her without informing their relatives.
Valjibhai did not believe this, so he and his son returned to Dhava village on Wednesday and pressured Dilip to tell the truth, which was shocking for Veljibhai.
Dilip is said to have told the complainant that, “Dhairya was influenced by an evil spirit, so they had taken her to the farm on October 1. We were carrying her extra clothes, which we burned and forced her to stand before the fire for two hours, because of which she developed blisters, the same night they performed black magic on her. On October 2, Dilip and Bhavesh beat her with sticks and iron wire, took her in the sugar cane field, tied her hair to a stick and put two chairs on her sides. She was kept like this for four to five days without water and food and they checked her health daily. On October 7 they found her dead.”
Early on October 8, they cremated her at the village crematorium. The complainant has alleged that Dhairya did not die because of any infectious disease, but she was murdered by her father and uncle.
