12-year-old gang-raped, set on fire in Muzaffarpur; four booked: Cops

A 12-year-old girl was raped by four men and set on fire in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district on January 3, the police said on Wednesday. A first information report (FIR) has been filed against the four suspects.

The four suspects have been booked under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sahebganj senior superintendent of police Jayant Kant said. A police team is trying to catch the men.

According to a complaint filed on Tuesday by the girl’s father, who works as a daily wager in Punjab and returned home on hearing of the incident, the four forced their way into the house where she lived and raped her. The men then set her on fire in the house and disposed of her body later, hes alleged.

“I returned to Bihar after my elder daughter, who witnessed the incident, called me. She told me that four men from the village entered my house and gang-raped my youngest daughter. Later, they killed her, setting her ablaze in a room in our house, to destroy all the evidence. They also disposed of her body after the incident,” the girl’s father alleged in his complaint to the police.

The father alleged that the four suspects had first raped the minor on December 23, filmed the crime and blackmailed her into having sex with them.

“They killed her on January 3 after raping her once again when she refused to listen to them,” the father alleged in the complaint.