Cops to verify age of 3-year-old girl’s killers

Mumbai: The JJ Marg police has put in an application to verify the age of the two accused arrested for kidnapping and murdering a three-year-old girl in Nagpada. The police has taken the step after allegations from the victim’s family that the arrested teenagers are 18 years of age, and not 16 years and 17 years, as they had stated.

The JJ Marg police on Saturday night arrested two teenagers for kidnapping and murdering Junera Khan who went missing from outside her house on December 5. The accused strangled her hours after kidnapping her and stuffed her body in a Rexine bag and hid behind a water tank of the adjoining building. One of the accused is a neighbour of the victim in Sharbatwala building on Donkan Road of Nagpada. He allegedly hatched a kidnapping plan with his friend who stays in the locality as they assumed that the victim’s family was rich.

The JJ police has submitted an application to the Juvenile Justice Board to conduct an age verification test on the two accused. “We want to be sure that they are not minors. Hence have asked for a test to be conducted,” said a police officer.

Speaking to The Asian Age, the girl’s father, Mumtaz Ahmed revealed that one of the teenagers is not a minor. “One of my cousin’s daughter studied with him and she is 18 years old. He failed his exams for two years and hence is now in class 11. He should in fact have finished his HSC board exams by now,” he said. Mumtaz added that the police should also investigate the role of the accused’s family. “When our child went missing, the accused’s father went out of the way to help us. He suggested that we go to Mahim dargah to consult with tantrik to help located out daughter. When we reached their at 12.30 pm they were constantly on the phone with us. We then visited another tantrik near CST at 2.30 pm and even then the family kept talking to us,” he said. He alleged that the rest of the neighbours had slept by then and the family must have helped the accused dispose of the body during that period. “After I received the first ransom call on December 19, the father of the accused asked all the neighbours to go to the police station and stop their questioning of the residents of the building,” revealed Mumtaz.