Over five years after a tribal girl, Meena Khalko, was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Balrampur district in Chhattisgarh, the state CID has arrested a police inspector in this connection.
This is the first arrest in the 2011 case, in which a total of 25 police personnel were allegedly involved.
"Nikodin Khess, who was then the Station House Officer (SHO) of Chando police station, was arrested yesterday on charges of murder in Meena Khalko case," Inspector General (CID) H K Rathore told PTI.
Khess, who was currently posted with police line in Gariaband district, was booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 193 (punishment for false evidence) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), he said.
According to Rathore, two more police personnel will soon be arrested in the case.
The 16-year-old Khalko was killed in the alleged encounter by a team of policemen from Chando police station near Karcha village in Balrampur district (then Surguja district) on July 6, 2011.
Police had then claimed that Meena was a Naxalite and had been killed in retaliation after the police party was attacked. However, not only members of Meena's family, but also the residents of the village had denied that any face-off had taken place on that day, and also accused the police of staging a fake encounter.
Later, the government had constituted a judicial commission to probe the incident.
The single-member judicial commissionheaded by retired district and sessions judge Anita Jha had submitted its report over the incident in 2015, which recommended the state government to re-investigate the incident and take necessary action into it. The report had also pointed that a police bullet had killed Khalko.
Thereafter, the state CID had registered a murder case into the incident in the same year based on the findings of the judicial inquiry and launched a probe. A total of 25 police personnel, including Khess, were allegedly involved in the incident.
"After the investigation, charges were framed against Khess and two other constables," Rathore said adding that the two others will be arrested soon.
Khess was produced in a local court yesterday, which sent him to 15 days' judicial remand, Rathore said.
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