# Murder of Kiran Negi

The kidnapping of Kiran Negi took place on February 9, 2012, in Qutub Vihar, Phase II, in Dwarka, southwest Delhi, India. Kiran Negi, a resident of Qutub Vihar, was returning home from work with two other girls when she was kidnapped by three people in a red Tata Indica car. A bystander named Vikas Rawat tried to intervene but was outnumbered. After a police complaint was filed, three persons, namely Rahul (26), Ravi, and Vinod (both 22), were arrested. The body of Kiran Negi was found in a mustard field about 30 km away in the village of Rodhai, Rewari district, Haryana. The police claimed to solve the case with confessions from the accused and findings of investigation, reinforced by DNA evidence.

## Investigation

The investigation conducted by the police revealed that accused Rahul was apprehended with a red Indica car four days after the kidnapping. He confessed in police custody that he, along with his brother Ravi and Vinod, had kidnapped a girl from Qutub Vihar, committed rape on her, killed her, and threw her dead body in the fields ahead of Jhajjar. The police confiscated the car, mobile phones of the accused, and found the body of the girl in village Rodai of Rewari, Haryana. The police also recovered some hair strands from the body of the deceased, as well as two plastic glasses, one empty pouch of snacks, piece of earthenware pot, a broken piece of a red-coloured plastic bumper(of the car), and one wallet near the dead body. At the instance of the accused, mobile phone and undergarment of the victim, along with her other burnt personal articles, were also found. The police found jack and spanner in the car, which were supposedly used for murdering the girl. Hair strands of the victim were also found in the car along with semen on the seats.

## Verdicts

However, procedural lapses by the police and prosecution ensured that the accused were acquitted in the case. Although the accused were convicted in lower courts and High Court, the Supreme Court of India picked apart all the circumstantial evidence and found that the evidence was not conclusive. None of the witnesses could identify the accused in court, and the Test Identification parade was not done by any of the investigating officers before filing the chargesheet. The constables who arrested the accused were not examined by the prosecution, and there were conflicting versions on who among the police reached the site of the body first. Confessions by the accused before police were not accepted as evidence, except in the part where it leads to recovery of any incriminating material. Thus, the wallet found was said to contain documents of accused Rahul, but witnesses did not mention any such documents, implying evidence planting by the police. The hair found on the body was suspected to have been put there later, as loose hair would not be on the body for 3 days. The date of death according to the post-mortem was between February 10, 2012, and February 11, 2012, while the prosecution claimed it to be the night of February 9, 2012, and February 10, 2012. As the chain of custody of the car was not clear between seizure and sending to the laboratory, the hair and semen found there also became suspect as being a plant by police. Further, the DNA test itself is not a reliable evidence according to the court. The parents of the victim were shocked at this judgment. A review petition in the case was also dismissed by the court.