Girls constituted a majority of the victims of the gruesome killings of children in Nithari village in Noida, it was revealed on Thursday as the state government came under mounting pressure to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Post-mortems of the 17 skulls and other bones discovered last week showed that 11 of those killed were girls, Chief Medical Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital in Noida Vinod Kumar told reporters.
As the demand for CBI probe mounted with even state Governor T V Rajeshwar echoing the plea of political parties, the state police constituted a special investigation team headed by an additional SP to go into the gruesome killings of children after their sexual abuse at the residence of businessman Mohinder Singh Pandher.
Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav deputed his brother and PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav to the village.
The minister virtually rejected demands for a CBI probe, saying investigations by the central agency invariably delayed matters, though they had no objection per se.
He said the state police has unearthed the whole matter "very fast" and the erring officials have already been punished.
Kumar said going by the length of the hair on the skulls, they have been able to ascertain that 11 of the 17 skeletons found belonged to girls.
"Hair with length ranging from 12 to 40 inches were found on 11 of the skulls, from which we could deduce that they are that of girls," he said.