The Bihar police are yet to make any significant progress on the horrific crime which transpired in Patna involving the gang rape of two minor Dalit girls and the subsequent murder of one of them. The deceased is around 8-10 years of age while the survivor who is in critical condition is 12 years old. More importantly, the identity of the accused in this horrible incident remains a mystery to the authorities. This recklessness happened amid a major protest by the angry villagers who blocked the Patna Ara highway for 6 hours on 10th January.
Protests broke out in Patna’s Phulwari Sharif following the kidnapping and sexual assault of two underage girls in the state capital’s Hinduni Badhar neighbourhood. One of them was discovered dead, reportedly murdered by the perpetrators, according to officials. The second girl suffered severe injuries and is currently fighting for her life at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Patna. She is still unconscious and receiving medical treatment.
The two girls were abducted on 8th January when they left the house to collect cow dung cakes. Their family members became worried when the duo didn’t return till late evening. The former tried to search for them but to no avail. They also notified Phulwari Sharif police station but no action was taken. On 9th January, the lifeless body of one of the girls was uncovered lying next to the unconscious body of the other in a field by the villagers. They had both been gang-raped by miscreants and their bodies were covered in blood.
The family of the girls also received the shocking news and they rushed to the scene. The cops were called by the locals right away and they reached the spot with a contingent, took control of the body and sent it for a post-mortem whereas the wounded girl was transported to the hospital. Police also recovered some clothes of the victim.
Additional Superintendent of Police Phulwari Sharif Vikram Sihag stated that the body of one of the girls was found on the second day after the disappearance of the two. The other is under treatment at AIIMS, Patna after suffering severe injuries. Special teams consisting Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) unit and the dog squad are being deployed for the probe. The guilty will soon be taken into custody. The police are awaiting the medical report. He added that blood traces came to light at the locations that the police had marked as evidence with the assistance of search dogs. They have collected various evidence from there.
The official said that a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Indian Penal Code sections 302 (prescribes the punishment for murder), 376AB (whoever commits rape on a woman under twelve years of age shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years) 307 (prescribes punishment for attempt to murder) and 120B (Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, or imprisonment for a term of 2 years or upwards) had been filed against the unidentified offenders based on the statement of the mother of the girls.
He informed that the autopsy and medical examination reports haven’t been received yet. Further details about the instance will become accessible after the unconscious girl wakes up. However, people’s rage is growing since the culprits are roaming free. Locals staged a protest to voice their outrage over the gutwrenching occurrence and to demand that the accused who have not yet been identified or apprehended be given the death penalty. They attempted to surround the Phulwari Sharif police station and obstructed traffic in the vicinity by setting fire to tires. They also accused the local police of being “lax.”
The mother of one of the victims revealed that she visited the cops on the fateful day to ask them for assistance in finding the missing girls but the officials had told her to look around the locality for them. She asserted that the barbarity could have been averted and the girls had been saved if the police had responded sooner. The two girls were reportedly friends.
