The brutal murder of a security guard at the Sarkanda Juvenile Observation Home in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, has shaken the entire administrative machinery. Such homes are meant to house minors who have come in conflict with the law for reform and supervision, but the initial police investigation has revealed that this was no sudden clash. Instead, it was a chillingly premeditated conspiracy carried out jointly by four juvenile inmates.
A plot born out of fear of being shifted to jail
The four minors, lodged in the observation home over serious cases including murder, rape, molestation and theft, had come to know that they were soon going to be shifted from this facility to another jail. To avoid that transfer, they hatched a plan to eliminate the watchman on duty so that nothing would stand in the way of their escape. On Sunday night, once the entire premises had gone to sleep, all four began putting their gruesome plan into action.
Hands and feet tied with rope, then strangled to death
Around 11 pm, as 41 year old security guard Narendra Kumar Khande, who was on duty on the first floor, approached their ward, the four suddenly attacked him. Before Narendra could react, he was thrown to the ground. His hands and feet were then brutally tied behind him with rope so that he could not resist or try to save himself. A gamcha was stuffed into his mouth so that his screams could not be heard outside. The four then strangled him together, and Narendra died on the spot due to suffocation.
CCTV DVR and monitor ripped out to destroy evidence
After killing the watchman, the accused moved on to the second part of their conspiracy, which was about destroying evidence. According to district women and child development officer Suresh Singh, these four juvenile offenders lived on the second floor, but after the murder they snatched the keys from the dead guard and came down. They first opened the locked gate and then walked straight into the superintendent's room, which held the keys to the entire premises as well as the complete CCTV system. To hide their identity and mislead the police, the accused ripped out the CCTV DVR, the monitor, and two to three bunches of premises keys kept there and took them along, so that no video footage would remain behind to identify them.
Escaped over the roof after cutting the security net, climbed down using a tree
Having destroyed the evidence, the four juvenile inmates chose the route over the roof to escape. Running, they reached the third floor and cleverly removed the security netting fixed there before climbing onto the roof. From the roof, they climbed down using the branches of a large tree standing on the premises and headed straight towards the main gate. Parked outside the gate was the motorcycle belonging to another guard posted for security. One of the keys stolen from the superintendent's room fit that very bike. All four accused then rode off on that motorcycle and vanished within moments.
Collector and SSP take charge of the investigation
When the incident came to light in the morning, Collector Sanjay Agrawal and SSP Rajnesh Singh personally reached the spot and began piecing together every link of the conspiracy. As news of this gruesome murder spread, deep anger broke out among the family members of the deceased Narendra, a resident of village Araibandh in Takhatpur.
Family's protest and their 12 point demands
Throughout Monday, family members and various organisations staged a protest outside the juvenile observation home and refused to allow the body to be taken away. Their demands included proper compensation, a government job for one member of the family, and a high level investigation into the entire case, adding up to a total of 12 demands placed before the administration. Late in the evening, administrative officials gave a firm assurance of swift action and managed to convince the family, after which the body could finally be sent to the CIMS mortuary.
All four juveniles still on the run, police search intensifies
Bilaspur police have stepped up vigilance across the entire district in search of the four fugitive juvenile accused. Several teams are continuously conducting raids in different areas in an effort to track down the accused at the earliest and fully expose the conspiracy behind this incident.
