Mystery Shrouds the Deaths of 3 Sisters

Courtesy of Betwa Sharma The bodies of the three sisters were recovered from this well in the Murmadi village of Maharashtra on Feb.16.

BHANDARA, Maharashtra â€"As the police investigate the deaths of three young sisters in a small village in central India, they are certain of one thing: someone killed the girls, ages 6, 9 and 11, sometime after they were last seen on Feb. 14 in Murmadi, in the Bhandara district of Maharashtra, and then dumped their bodies into a well in a rice field, where they were found on Feb. 16.

Everything else, however, is uncertain, including how they were killed and whether this is a rape and murder case,or a merely a murder case, which affects the pool of possible suspects. The lack of clarity is raising concerns among villagers that the police are conducting a shoddy investigation.

The Bhandara police, which are currently treating this as a rape and murder case, have questioned more than 100 people, but so far no one has been arrested, which has infuriated the residents of Murmadi, especially the girls’ mother.

Courtesy of Betwa Sharma Madhuri Jaipal Borkar, the mother of the three girls at her home in Murmadi village on March 1.

“I dressed them for school. That was the last time I sa! w them alive,” Madhuri Jaipal Borkar, who has no other children, told India Ink on Friday. “What can I say now How do I go on”

The tragic fate of the three girls became national headlines in a country still reeling from the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in Delhi on Dec. 16. The capital was rocked by protests demanding justice for the student after she died from her injuries. Faced with an explosion of public outrage, the Delhi police rounded up six suspects within a day after the gang rape occurred.

“This is a bigger tragedy than what happened in Delhi. Three real sisters are dead,” said Sevakbhau Waghaye Patil, a Bhandara politician, who was on a hunger strike to demand a swift investigation. “It’s a terrifying incident and it’s not really been highlighted by the media in the same way.”

Family members and neighbors have accused the police of beig callous about the case from the start. After the girls disappeared on Feb. 14, Raibhan Ganpat Borkar, the girls’ grandfather, said that his complaint was not registered when he visited the police station the same evening. The next day, he said, a group of angry neighbors went together to the police station demanding a search.

Residents of Murmadi and the neighboring village of Lakhani have staged several protests demanding justice for the three girls. The central government, led by the Indian National Congress party, has been forced to respond in Parliament.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told Parliament on Friday that Prakash Mude, the police inspector in-charge of the station, had been suspended because he did not act promptly. On Friday, however, the main issue of the police investigation was sidelined after an opposition party member criticized Mr. Shinde for naming the girl! s, who ar! e considered rape victims.

In a new twist, the Bhandara police, who had registered a case for murder and rape based on the initial postmortem report, are now are considering the possibility that the girls may not have been raped, which would change the focus of the investigation.

Aarti Singh, the superintendent of police for Bhandara, told India Ink that the forensic report found no male DNA on the girls. “It doesn’t categorically or specifically rule out rape,” she said. “Fifty percent you can rule out rape, and 50 percent you can’t.”

Ms. Singh added that the police needed to further consult with forensic experts before confirming rape or sexual assault.

Ms. Singh explained that if rape were ruled out, then women, including the mother of the girls and their grandmother, could be considered suspects. “Now the horizon of the suspects will also be ladies,” she said.

Neighbors said that Mrs. Borkar, whose husband is dead, and her mother-in-law had been squabbling oer property. The younger Mrs. Borkar has also accused her mother-in-law of being involved in the murder.

The girls’ grandmother, Satyasheila Raiban Borkar, showed India Ink her will, and the will of her husband, which named the three girls as inheritors of their house and land. The elderly Mrs. Borkar, who has lost both her sons, has no other grandchildren.

“I am feeling bad because I am the grandmother and I am facing allegations. Even people are suspecting me,” she said.

Ms. Singh said that 10 teams, made up of experts from all over the state, had been formed to investigate the case.

“There are certain theories that we are working on. It can be a revenge angle, or a property angle, or the lust angle,” she said. “We have rounded up suspects and we are getting some good clues.”

But villagers of Murmadi are now outraged that the police are still not certain whether the girls were raped or not, which only confirms the villagers’ fears of the police’s inco! mpetence.!

“It got highlighted all over the state as rape. On what basis did they say it was rape” asked Ashwini Bhiwagade, a social worker and member of the local village committee.

“What kind of investigation is going on that they don’t know where rape occurred or not. Are they playing a joke on such a serious incident” she added.

Other questions about what happened to the girls remain unanswered. The postmortem report, for instance, does not establish cause of death. It only finds that they died before being thrown into the well.

Bharat Gabhane, a local lawyer, said that pressure from the public and politicians had resulted in an investigation fraught with mistakes. He pointed out that legal procedures allowed the police 90 days to complete an inquiry.

“After finding the body, there were so many protests that it became very difficult to manage the protests and collect evidence,” he said. “The police was entirely confused and could not work properly.”

Meanwhile,the atmosphere in the Borkar household remains tense as the girls’ mother and her mother-in-law continue to reside in adjacent rooms.

On Friday, the younger Mrs. Borkar opened up about the daughters she has lost. The 11-year-old, she said, had made a scrapbook by cutting the photos of women leaders and writing about them. “She also loved dancing especially to Katrina Kaif songs,” she said, referring to a popular Bollywood actress.

The middle sister, the mother said, was a quiet girl who followed her elder sister around everywhere. The youngest, she continued, was studious. “She remembered whatever she was taught at school,” said the mother. “She wanted to become a teacher.”

The three sisters always played together, she said. “They recently brought a cycle home,” she said. “They made the smallest one sit at the back since she could not ride.”

In another room of the house, Mr. Borkar, the grandfather, recalled that the youngest sister loved drawing and danc! ing as we! ll. “She was the doll of the house,” he said. “She also used to teach me how to dance.”