Outrage as three more minor girls raped in UP, two in MP

A series of heinous crime cases, especially those of rape, with victims being minor girls were reported from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, with three cases coming from UP, where people are still in shock after the brutal murder of a three-year-old in Aligarh’s Tappal village.

In the three cases in Uttar Pradesh, a 12-year-old girl was dragged from her house and allegedly gang-raped by six men in Kushinagar district, a 15-year-old was allegedly raped by a teacher inside a seminary in Kanpur, and the unclothed body of seven-year-old girl was found in a field on Sunday in Jalaun.

In Madhya Pradesh, a 10-year-old girl, who went missing from a slum in Bhopal on Saturday night, was raped and murdered, police said. In the second case in MP, a 16-year-old boy was detained for allegedly sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl in a village in Jabalpur district on Sunday.

In UP’s Kushinagar district, six men allegedly dragged a 12-year-old girl out of her home and raped her on Friday evening, the police said on Sunday. The suspects were allegedly embroiled in a dispute with the girl’s family over construction of a drain. A first information report was lodged on Sunday, two days after the incident. Four of the six suspects have been arrested. Two are on the run. The victim was undergoing treatment at a hospital, police said.

Meanwhile, a madrasa teacher allegedly raped a 15-year-old Class 9 student inside a seminary in Kanpur on Sunday.

The alleged rapist was arrested after the victim’s parents approached the police and lodged an FIR. The accused has been charged under POCSO act, apart from charges of rape, the police said.

In Jalaun, the naked body of a seven-year-old girl was found in a field on Sunday, leading to suspicion about possibility of rape. Jalaun superintendent of police (SP) Swami Prasad said a case of murder has been registered on complaint of the girl’s father and the body had been sent for a post-mortem analysis.

In the case from Bhopal, the body of a 10-year-old girl who went missing from a slum on Saturday night was found in a sewer on Sunday morning hardly 20 metres away from her home, said police. According to the post-mortem report, she was strangulated to death after the rape, said police. As many as seven police personnel were suspended after the girl’s family complained that the police did not act promptly on their complaint.

The cases prompted Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati to hit out at the state government. In a statement on Sunday, Akhilesh Yadav said there had been an alarming increase in crime, including rape of minor girls, since the Lok Sabha poll results were declared last month. “Uttar Pradesh has become a crime state,” he said.

“First Aligarh, then in Hamirpur a minor girl was abducted, raped, and murdered. People are unnerved, angry and agitated over the incidents. To prevent such incidents, the society and the government need to be more strict,” Maywati tweeted.

First Published: Jun 10, 2019 00:06 IST