In Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district, people from the Churah area brought the Chamba-Tissa highway to a complete halt on Monday, staging a sit-in at Atal Chowk in Tissa. Their demand was singular, hand over the investigation into the Negi Ram murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The protest follows the discovery, last month in August, of the body of 38-year-old Negi Ram in the Jukyani locality of Churah. He had suffered a deep wound to the head, one of his hands had been severed from the body, and his face had been disfigured so badly that identification was difficult. Curiously, his motorcycle was found standing safely near the spot, which suggests robbery was not the motive behind the attack.
What the forensic report revealed
A forensic examination found that Negi Ram had been attacked with sharp, pointed weapons in an extremely brutal manner. Police have so far arrested two people in the case, including one woman. However, the family and villagers remain unconvinced by how the investigation has proceeded.
Family says a lone woman could not have committed such a brutal killing
That dissatisfaction spilled onto the road on Monday. Relatives and residents argue that, given the manner in which the murder was carried out, the woman named as an accused could not have committed such a savage killing alone. They believe the circumstances of the case strongly suggest that other people were also involved.
A villager said, "Given the brutality of this crime, we believe others besides those arrested are involved, and another woman's role is also suspicious." The sit-in began at 10:30 am and continued until 3:30 pm. With the highway shut for hours, long queues of vehicles built up on both sides, causing significant trouble for travellers passing through.
A SIM-less phone becomes the key clue
Negi Ram's body was recovered from a ravine on August 19, after which police arrested a woman in connection with the case. The investigation found that Negi Ram had allegedly attempted to molest the woman. She is not mentally well and is known to often wander alone at night. A mobile phone without a SIM card, recovered from the scene, turned out to be a vital link in the case, since the accused woman used it to listen to songs.
