Ranchi: For Rekha Devi, mother of 18-year-old Pushpa, whose skeletal remains were found on Saturday after she went missing last July, her fight for justice is still not over. The bereaved mother on Sunday demanded capital punishment not just for the accused ex-boyfriend but also for the now suspended officer in-charge of the local police station.After performing her daughter’s last rites on Sunday, Devi told TOI, “…not just my daughter’s killer, I want capital punishment for ‘bada babu’ (OC) too as he and his team deliberately delayed probe after taking bribes and liquor from the culprit.”Devi rued that her daughter could have been alive had the police shown some sympathy to her plight. “The entire police brass would have worked overnight to trace a person if he/she hailed from an influential family. Local police kept playing football with our case because we are poor,” alleged Devi, whose husband, Annat Mahto, and 16-year-old son work as daily wagers.On July 21 last year, Devi’s daughter went missing after she left home for submitting her application form in Chas College. “I didn’t want her to study any more as we couldn’t afford. But her prospective father-in-law insisted that she must study as she was a bright girl. He assured us that he would fund his studies even after marriage,” she recalled.Pushpa and accused Dinesh Kumar Mahto were in a relationship for three years, but later broke-up. “He (Dinesh) lived in a nearby hamlet but under the same police station (Pindrajora) limits. I had once spoken to him and his family for my daughter’s marriage. However, he then rejected the match. Thereafter, my daughter agreed to marry him before she went missing,” she said.Devi said Pindrajora police wasn’t interested in tracing her daughter. “They didn’t take my complaint for days. Then they kept sitting on the probe after lodging FIR. We just kept running from pillar to post seeking help. In Dec, we got a call from an anonymous person stating that my daughter was in Pune. He told us that he recognised her after watching videos on social media about the incident. After lots of trouble, police finally agreed to send a team,” she said.The informant, who later turned out to be a native of Gomia in Bokaro, was traced and called by cops for the journey to Pune.“After reaching Pune, cops told my husband that the informant had escaped and they will have to look for him first. They disappeared leaving my husband alone at the station. My husband’s phone too got stolen and he was left stranded there. Somehow, we arranged funds for his return,” she said, adding that with the help of a few local social workers, she decided to approach the high court.
