A similar report on Rome Meitei states that the accused assaulted the girl in her private parts with a weapon, and participated in disposing of her body and in collecting the first ransom instalment. Backing up the finding that Meitei assaulted baby Elizabeth is the postmortem conducted by the Imphal-based Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), which finds that “rape cannot be ruled out”.

Meanwhile, the polygraph test report, prepared by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, New Delhi, states that Kuki and Deben gave “deceptive responses” to all questions put to them during the test.

The CBI had said earlier that delays in the investigation were due to lack of cooperation from the Manipur Government and the negotiations with Naga militant outfit NSCN (I-M) to “release” accused James Kuki, whom it had taken into its “custody” for “investigating the case”.