Army jawan emerges suspect in four-year old rape case

Recent probe into the case revealed that the girl had a relationship with a soldier and was raped by one or more persons before she committed suicide, Samba SSP Israr Khan said.

After the case was reopened recently, the police found that Anjana Sihag of Rajasthan, a second year B.Ed student of Dogra College, was in a relationship with soldier Aman Kumar (No 15154560-H/GNR/CLK of 103 MC, MF DET Unit) and had gone to meet him just before committing suicide, he said.

Kumar had posed himself as a captain and apparently his relations with the girl were strained after she came to know that Kumar was just a sepoy and not a comissioned officer, he said.

The police had at that time initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC for some days but later closed the file as a mere suicide case.

"He (Kumar) is a suspect, the case is four years old. It was just a matter of chance that I stumbled upon the case during crime review. There were some startling facts in the post mortem report which confirmed rape by one or more persons," Khan said.

Khan revealed that during further investigations police found that there was an exchange of letters between the two and also said that before commiting suicide she had gone to see Kumar.

Kumar had been reportedly pressuring Anjana to meet him for the last time before bidding him a final adieu, the police said.

"We then requsted the Southern Command to look into the matter. I hope that since the GOC Southern Command has written to the Northern Command to extend thier cooperation in the investigations they will handover the boy to us for further investigations," he said. Army sources, however, revealed that the soldier left the Northern Command in the year 2010, but added that an intimation has been dispatched to the individuals commanding unit to send him back on priority basis.

"We have recievd the letter from the Southern Command and have initiated a proper process to bring him back on priority basis as he has already left the Northern Command in 2010," the source revealed.

He, however, refused to provide any information on the current location of the suspect.
Sihag had allegedly consumed poison in her hostel room at the industrial township of Bari Brahmana on September 20, 2007 soon after returning from somewhere outside.