SURAT: Weeks after the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua sent shock waves and sparked protests across the country, a minor girl in Gujarat’s Surat was allegedly held captive, tortured and raped before being killed.
The severely wounded body of the unidentified minor girl, believed be in the age group of 9 to 11 years was found from a cricket ground in Bhestan area of Surat on April 6 with 86 injury marks.
After five-hour long postmortem, it was revealed that the girl was brutalized, sexually assaulted for at least for eight to 10 days before being strangled her to death.
Civil Hospital Forensic Head Ganesh Govekar said, “The girl’s body had 86 injury marks including ones on her private parts. Samples have been taken for forensic test to ascertain whether she was drugged or not.”
He said that a case of rape has been registered and also booked the unidentified accused under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
A reward of Rs 20,000 has been announced for anyone providing information about the girl or her family.
1200 posters have been posted across Surat for identification of girl. Have announced reward of Rs 20,000 for anyone providing information about the victim or her family. Case has been handed over to crime branch: Satish Sharma, Police Commissioner on Surat rape and murder case pic.twitter.com/ILvOa8Fe0m
— ANI (@ANI) April 15, 2018
In the wake of incidents of rape in Unnao, Kathua and Surat, protests were staged in various parts of the country on Sunday.
MLA Jignesh Mevani-led Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch and also Muslim community menbers held protests condemning the three brutal rape crimes on Sunday.
Earlier on April 8, a woman and her family tried to commit suicide outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
Her family alleges that she was raped by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his accomplice last year.
On the other hand, an eight-year-old girl belonging to a nomadic Muslim tribe in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir was allegedly abducted, drugged, gang-raped, tortured and killed in January.
Among the accused in the case are police officers and a retired government official.