Source – indiatoday.in
Aspecial Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Friday convicted the main accused in the rape and murder case of an engineering student in Ranchi, Jharkhand, after a swift trial that lasted for a month, officials said.
In a big success in the most brutal crime which took place three years ago on the fourth anniversary of Delhi’s Nirbhaya rape and murder, the probe agency cracked the case using profiles of people in an area to narrow down suspects.
The CBI nailed Rahul Raj, who had absconded after committing the crime on the night of December 15-16, 2016, and used a number of aliases, using DNA lineage of his parents which matched with the sample found on the victim’s body and nails, the officials further said.
Officials said Raj is a habitual offender and is accused in a separate sexual assault case in Bihar and a number of theft cases Uttar Pradesh.
The CBI took over the investigation on March 28, 2018, and managed to crack it open in June this year, arresting Raj from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, where he was in Jail for a separate crime, they said.
The court framed charges against him in the last week of October and in a swift trial, in which 30 witnesses were scrutinised over 16 working days.
The verdict came on a day expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court for raping a minor girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district.
The quantum of sentence for Rahul Raj, a resident of Nalanda in Bihar, by the Ranchi Special court will be pronounced tomorrow.
The gruesome raped and murder case had triggered public outrage with innumerable protests outrage across the country in 2016.