(file photo)
RANCHI: Two incidents of rape, involving three minor girls came to the fore in Jharkhand on Thursday. A five-year-old girl was strangled to death after being raped in Doranda. She was found lying in a pool of blood when her mother along with her relatives recovered the body near their house early on Thursday. In a separate incident, two minor girls were allegedly raped and thrown into a well with their feet tied with bricks in Jamtara district, 300km from Ranchi.
Ranchi city SP Manoj Ratan said, “The postmortem report says the five-year-old Doranda girl was raped and died due to strangulation.” The body bore a mark of strangulation in the neck, said locals. The chest of the girl had several scratches and was stained with blood, said the girl’s uncle Sahid Akhtar. The hands and legs of the deceased were also tied, he added.
The girl was traceless after she returned from school around 1:30pm on Wednesday. Her aunt Noor Jahan said, “A relative of the victim had brought her back from school, situated in the same colony, and had gone to sleep after that. When her mother woke up, she did not find the girl around and started searching for her.” Her mother Anisha Parrone has been crying inconsolably was not in a position to talk to mediapersons.
Md Akbar,s a relative of the victim, said they went to Ranchi railway station, Hatia railway station, and Khadgara bus stand among other places in search of the girl. “I returned home around 3 am after I lost all hopes and decided to search for the girl again on Thursday,” said Md Manir, the father of the girl who lives in Darzi Mohalla.
Shakila Kahtoon, who lives in the same house as the victim’s family, said 30 minutes after everyone returned home and shut the doors, suddenly dogs started barking outside.
“I tried to peep out of the window but it was dark. I became suspicious because there was light outside when I closed the door. I went outside to find out how it suddenly turned dark. The street lights that are a little far away from my house were on, while two lights near my house were switched off,” said Shakila Khatoon, the victim’s relative.
The family found the body in a deserted house where the lights were switched off. Jharkhand assembly speaker C P Singh called the act heinous. “I have not seen such brutality in my life,” Singh claimed after visiting the spot. The locals protested against the incident and blocked the main road for over one hour in the morning.
A case has been lodged with Doranda police station and police, along with sniffer dogs, are conducting raids at suspected places to nab the culprit. “The culprit appear to be a local boy,” said police.
Meanwhile, the district police recovered the bodies of the two girls from Kusma Pahadi tola under Jamtara police station on Thursday. Shailendra Singh, inspector of Jamtara police station, said, “The girls were naked and prima facie it appears to be a case of rape. The feet of both the girls were tied with bricks before being thrown into the well.”
One of the deceased was a 12-year-old girl and student of Class VII, while the other was a 13-year-old and a Class VIII student. “Both the girls had gone to attend a function in the neighboring Bharchandi village on Tuesday. But they did not return home,” the inspector said. Police suspect that the girls were raped and murdered on Tuesday night itself.
The bodies were inflated with water and it indicates that the girls were lying there for long,” said the inspector.” An investigation has been launched into the case,” said Jamtara SP Sunil Bhaskar. The family members were searching for the missing girls, both of whom come from neighboring villages, but had not lodged any FIR, police said.
