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7-year-old girl gang-raped, murdered in Assam; 2 arrested
Police said that the girl was sleeping at her home when the accused entered the house, forcibly took her to a forest area and gang-raped her
Silchar: A seven-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped and murdered by two men in Assam’s Tinsukia district on May 28, police said on Monday, adding that the two prime accused were arrested on May 31 and June 1.
The incident happened in a village under the jurisdiction of Bordubi Police Station on May 28 afternoon. The accused threw the girl’s body in a drain before absconding, said the Tinsukia deputy superintendent of police (DSA), Nitisha Jagtap.
Police said that the family members later lodged a complaint at the Bordubi Police Station and a case was registered under sections 65(2) (raping a woman under sixteen years) and 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.
The DSP said that one of the accused, Raja Karmakar (26), was arrested on May 31 from the Dirak Gate area near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, and he later revealed the identity of another person involved in this.
“Initially, it looked like only one person was involved, but later with the medical examinations of the body and the confession by the arrested person, we came to know that this was a gang-rape,” she told HT on Monday.
The second accused, Shyam Murari (25), a resident of Kehang Tea Estate in Tinsukia, was arrested on June 1.
“We arrested them for rape and murder, and now we have appealed to court to add the relevant sections of gang-rape,” she added.
Police said that the girl was sleeping at her home when the accused entered the house, forcibly took her to a forest area and raped her.
“A woman saw them when they were taking her, and she asked them about it, but they said they were dropping her home. The lady has identified them and helped in the investigation,” police said.
The incident triggered a massive protest in the locality and over hundred tea garden workers staged a protest in front of the Bordubi Police Station on Sunday. They demanded strict punishment for the accused.
Police said that the arrested persons have gone through interrogations, and they’ll be produced before the court on Monday. “We are investigating the matter further and recorded statements from all the relevant individuals,” officials said.
The body of the victim was sent for postmortem at a government hospital, and it was later handed over to the family members, police said.
