The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress have slammed the Bihar government over the murder and alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old Dalit girl in Muzaffarpur district four days ago.
On August 12, the girl’s body was found in a pond. According to her family, the main accused, Sanjay Rai, had threatened to kidnap the girl and rape her if the family did not let him marry her.
So far, no arrest has been made in the case. The police have lodged an FIR against Mr. Rai and his five friends under sections 103 (1) (punishment for murder), 70 (2) (gang rape of a woman under 18) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and under sections 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act. Several sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989 have been evoked.
According to the FIR, the family members have alleged that Mr. Rai reached their house at the midnight of August 11 and enquired about the girl. All the six barged into their house and kidnapped her.
Speaking to The Hindu, Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur, Rakesh Kumar said, “Investigation is going on in the case and we have got the postmortem report. There are wounds from sharp weapons on the back of the neck, head and palm.”
Mr. Kumar said there is ‘no struggle mark’ on the private parts of the girl. “As far as rape is concerned, doctors have said that there is no struggle mark on her private parts or any injury. However, doctors have preserved her vaginal swab and have sent it to the lab for testing. We have not got the report yet and if there would be any proof of rape, we will consider the case accordingly,” he said.
Mr. Kumar said the main accused is absconding. “We are in process of attaching his property. We will arrest him soon,” he said.
Attacking the government, Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav posted a message on X saying the morale of “state-protected criminals and rapists” has increased under the “patronage” of Nitish Kumar in Bihar. Sharing incidents of past rape cases, Mr. Yadav wrote, “In Muzaffarpur, a minor girl was kidnapped in front of her parents, after gang-raping her, the monsters cut off her breast and private parts, later killed her and threw her half-naked body in a pond.”
Congress legislative party leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan called for a speedy probe and demanded a compensation of ₹1 crore for the victim’s family. “Kolkata has not been out of our minds yet and Bihar has witnessed another highly condemnable, heinous incident of brutality -- gang rape and murder of a Dalit minor. It has been four days but there has been no visit by the local MLA Ashok Kumar Singh and MP Veena Devi. No Minister of the State and official of the State government visited the victim’s family so far,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Khan said this is “not the first incident under the ‘Kushasan Sarkar’”.
“There have been many incidents of atrocities against women and Dalits in the State. I demand quick arrest of the accused and speedy trial apart from a government job for one person from the family,” he said.
