The body of a six-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and strangled to death with her school belt, was found in Tonk district of Rajasthan on Sunday, a day after she went missing, the police said.
The incident comes on the heels of countrywide protests over the recent incidents of alleged gang rape and murder of two women in Telangana and Jharkhand.
According to the police, the body of the girl — a Class 1 student — was spotted by some villagers in the bushes at a remote area of a village in Aligarh town. The locals then informed the police, who rushed to the spot with a forensics team.
As per preliminary investigation, the nature of injury indicates that the minor was raped and then strangled to death with the school belt that she was wearing, said Ram Krishan, station house officer (SHO), Aligarh police station. The body was sent for a post-mortem examination.
No arrests have been made so far, but efforts are on to identify the accused, he added.
“The victim was studying in Class 1 in a government school. On Saturday, she was in school till 3pm as there was a cultural function. After that, she didn’t reach home. Her parents searched for her but they were unable to find her,” said Krishan.
{{/usCountry}}“The victim was studying in Class 1 in a government school. On Saturday, she was in school till 3pm as there was a cultural function. After that, she didn’t reach home. Her parents searched for her but they were unable to find her,” said Krishan.
{{/usCountry}}Tonk additional superintendent of police Vipin Sharma said that the family members of the minor did not approach the police on Saturday after the girl didn’t return home as they thought she might be at a relative’s place. “The girl used to live with her four maternal uncles. All of them lived in nearby houses. Family members told us that they thought that she would be in a nearby house and must be sleeping there, that’s why they didn’t lodge any missing persons report,” he said.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against unknown persons under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.
On Wednesday, a 27-year-old veterinarian was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by four men, before her charred body was found a day later in Telangana’s Shadnagar, near Hyderabad. The same week, a 25-year-old law student was allegedly gang-raped by a group of armed men in Ranchi, Jharkhand.