A case of brutality against a 7-year-old girl has come to light in Jaigaon town of Alipurduar district of West Bengal. She was taken to the market under the pretext of buying her chowmein, then raped and burnt alive to death. The corpse was discovered on 22nd October. The next day, the 50-year-old prime accused, Bablu Miyan Munir who had absconded was caught near the Nepal border. Two others have also been captured.
Bablu didn’t use a mobile phone and couldn’t be tracked. However, the authorities nabbed him by forming a network of CCTV surveillance and with the help of informers. The shocking incident enraged the locals who took to the streets to demand justice and punishment for the perpetrator.
According to media reports, the child went missing on 15th October and her family filed a missing person’s report. However, she was not found anywhere which led to great distress among the family members and the entire neighbourhood. According to the family, the child never came home after Bablu led her to the Jaigaon bus stand. Suddenly, word got out in the area that her half-burnt body had been found in a deserted area. Police unveiled that sexual assault has been verified by the scratch marks uncovered on her body and the injury marks detected on the accused. Superintendent of Police (SP) Y Raghuvanshi and Sub-Divisional Police Office (SDPO) Prashant Debnath informed that the forensic team is also consulted and that the accused’s DNA is being tested to provide solid evidence.
“The accused does not use a phone. He hardly has any links with his family. As a result, it was difficult to track him. We got information that he worked in a brick kiln in Kishanganj in Bihar and had come home recently. We started looking for him in brick kilns in the area. Today (on 23rd October), we were alerted that he was spotted near the Nepal border. That is where we detained him. During interrogation, he admitted to killing the girl. The post-mortem report of the girl will confirm whether she was raped,” the authorities confirmed.
A police source stated, “So, we had to depend more on our informers. We found that he worked at a brick kiln, but we didn’t have the location of the said facility,” The police gathered CCTV recordings from several homes and conducted a search operation at nearly all of the brick kilns in the neighbouring districts of Coochbehar, Raiganj and even Kishanganj in Bihar. They received a tip-off that he was spotted in Nepal and then conducted a covert operation to track him by sending a few local villagers to the neighbouring country.
When the locals encountered Bablu, he admitted to the crime after which they informed the authorities upon returning to India. According to the police, Bablu was trying to flee to Nepal but was caught on time. A team was sent to the Nepal border and he was caught while trying to enter India, per other reports. The cops first arrested Bablu who was acquainted with the girl’s family and had taken her with him and later apprehended two more suspects. All three are now in police remand and under interrogation during which Bablu made alarming disclosures. “The accused confessed his guilt and stated that two other people were involved in the crime,” police conveyed.
He mentioned that the victim was first brought to an isolated location where she was raped and then reportedly set ablaze. He added that he disposed of the body in a bush near Daldabari. The situation in Jaigaon remains tense. The police are constantly appealing to maintain peace, but people want immediate justice. They closed their shops and came out on the road in protest of the instance. They raised slogans outside the police station asking for swift punishment to the offenders. “This incident has not only claimed our daughter but also violated our humanity. We will not sit quietly until the culprits are punished,” voiced a demonstrator.
Questions have also been raised regarding the conduct of the police. People expressed that they did not take the girl’s disappearance seriously, even after her family submitted a report. They were unable to find any clue for multiple days and only became active after the body was spotted. The cops even had a tough time catching Bablu. They saw him taking the little girl on CCTV footage and laid a trap for him. He was eventually arrested from the India-Nepal border.
I am deeply angered and anguished at the tragic case of a 7-year-old girl who was found raped and murdered in the Indo-Bhutan border region of Jaigaon, under Alipurduar District. This incident is another example of the complete failure of the West Bengal government, led by Chief… pic.twitter.com/kCQ1LZHr9r
— Raju Bista (@RajuBistaBJP) October 23, 2024
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Darjeeling Lok Sabha MP Raju Bisht also made serious allegations against the state government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He charged that the law and order situation in West Bengal has significantly deteriorated. He was going to meet the victim’s family, but the police stopped him, which further angered the people. BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP from Balurghat Sukanta Majumdar also accused Mamata Banerjee’s government of trying to protect the criminals involved in such occurrences.
Prashant Debnath informed, “Her body was found behind the bushes in a field in Daldabari, Jaigaon on Tuesday. An FIR (First Information Report) has been filed under BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) sections of kidnapping, murder, and Section 6 of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.” The local villagers were commended by the police for their assistance in the case.
