PATNA: An eight-year-old girl was brutally hacked to death by a man and his family members in Bihar’s eastern Araria district because she plucked a ripe mango from a tree in his orchard, the police said on Tuesday.
The victim, Amerun, was attacked with a sharp weapon allegedly by Sanjay Mehta and she died on the spot due to excessive loss of blood. Mehta and local people tried their best to conceal the murder even as Amerun’s father, Mohammad Ibrahim, searched for her frantically and approached the police.
The incident took place at Tintikri village in Forbesganj block of Muslim-dominated Araria district on Sunday evening.
Amerun was going with her father to the nearby market for shopping for Eid. On the way, she saw ripe mangoes hanging from a roadside tree and tried to pluck one. Meanwhile, her father called out to her, asked her to come with him, and went ahead.
“Sanjay Mehta and his family members caught hold of the girl and attacked her. They hacked her on several parts of her body. When she died, they tied her body with electric wires in an effort to make her death appear as though it was caused by electric shock,” said a police officer familiar with the case.
The villagers tried their best to conceal the girl’s murder, said sources, but Ibrahim saw blood stains in the mango orchard and found Amerun’s body dumped there the next day. He was pressured not to approach the police, though he went ahead. Amerun’s body was retrieved by the police and sent for autopsy.
On the basis of Ibrahim’s complaint, an FIR was lodged at Basmatia police outpost and four people, including Sanjay Mehta, were named accused. But no one has been arrested so far as the accused are absconding.
“An investigation is underway, and raids are being conducted to nab all the accused,” said Araria SP Sudhir Kumar Porika.