On 9 October, the mutilated body of a 13-year-old girl with her eyes gouged out was found in a sugarcane field in the Tikunia area of Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh. Multiple wounds were inflicted on the dead body. The Muslim girl had left for a nearby madarsa on the morning of the previous day, however, failed to come back.
लखीमपुर खीरी के 13 साल की नाबालिग के साथ हैवानियत गन्ने के खेत में मिला छत विछत शव दरिंदो ने बच्ची की दोनों आँख भी फोड़ी मदरसे से घर आते समय गायब हुई थी छात्रा तिकुनिया थाना क्षेत्र का है मामला @Uppolice @lakhimpurpolice @dgpup @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/v8AsGbgFEQ
— Raj B. Singh (@razzbsingh) October 10, 2023
The incident pertained to the Singahi police station area where the infuriated people gathered around the vehicle of the Superintendent of Police Ganesh Prasad Saha and created a ruckus. There is a significant police presence in the village and experts in forensics also rushed to the area.
The family members of the minor are charging that their daughter was raped. According to the report, she went to study at a local madarsa and the family grew concerned when she did not return till evening. They searched for her extensively but were unable to find her and lodged a missing complaint at Tikunia police station at around 12 a.m.
Her corpse was recovered from a sugarcane field at around 1 p.m. near the hamlet. Her clothes were torn and in disarray, her mouth was stuffed with mud, horrifying injury marks covered her face and head, as well as both eyeballs were cut out. Her bag was also spotted near the body. Police reached the spot after receiving information and identified the body. The family members arrived there and recognised their daughter. They also engaged in an altercation with the police. A large group of locals assembled as soon as they learned about the occurrence.
Her mother raised suspicion of sexual assault followed by murder after observing the condition of the deceased. She expressed, “My daughter had gone to study, but she didn’t return. We kept searching for her the whole night and complained to the police.” She claimed that cops did not take the complaint with seriousness. “She would still be alive today if they had looked for the girl at night. Her head had visible wounds. Her eyes were removed. Her mouth was full of mud. Someone had pressed her face into the ground for a long period of time.”
On the night of 9 October when Ganesh Prasad Saha arrived at the crime scene multiple irate villagers encircled his car including the family member of the girl and demanded appropriate action from the authorities. The senior officer assured them of proper inquiry and took the body into their custody following much effort after which it was sent for postmortem. Regional leaders also came to the place of postmortem late in the evening.
The top cop mentioned, “Injury marks were found on the girl’s head and body. Further action would be taken only after the autopsy analysis is conducted. We have formed teams to search for the accused. Squads from nearby police stations have also been dispatched. The perpetrators are going to be caught soon.”
Meanwhile, the postmortem was performed on 10 October by three doctors and the report disclosed that she was strangled to death, but did not provide evidence of rape. The body was handed over to the family who refused to bury it until the culprits were behind bars and asked for compensation.
Ganesh Prasad Saha has formed teams of three police stations under the leadership of Circle Officer Nighasan Rajesh Kumar along with the crime branch and surveillance to probe the gut-wrenching instance. He stressed that the entire episode would be exposed soon.
