PATNA: In a shocking incident, a 12-year-old girl was raped and subsequently beaten to death by her close relative in Bihar's Bhojpur district. The victim's body was recovered from the accused's house late on Monday, triggering violent protests on Tuesday.
The incident took place at a village under the Ara town police station area late on Monday when the victim had gone to the accused's house to borrow something. The accused raped her, tied her hands and feet with a rope and assaulted her brutally.
The accused, who happened to be the victim's uncle, hid the body under a bed after she succumbed to injuries. The incident came to light when the family members started searching for her but could not get any trace.
Later the family came to know about the girl's visit to her uncle's house. When they visited the house of the suspect, they were shocked to see her hands and feet tied with a rope and kept her body under the bed. The suspect was brutally thrashed by local residents.
Bhojpur superintendent of police Raj said that the accused has been admitted to a local hospital for treatment under police custody. "We are probing the case from all angles, including previous enmity with the girl's family," he told the media on his return from the spot.
He said that the local residents told the police that the accused sexually assaulted the girl first and then beat her to death in his house. The SP said that a forensic team visited the spot and collected evidence.
The victim's family claimed that the accused had tied the girl's body with a cot after killing her. "We found the body tied with a rope from a cot in a room," the victim's family said in a written complaint submitted to the Ara town police at the station.
As the news about the murder of the girl after being sexually assaulted spread in the locality, a number of people assembled outside the accused's house and thrashed him. However, he was rescued by the local police and subsequently admitted to a hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, the girl's body has been handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination and an investigation has been initiated, the SP told this reporter over a call on Tuesday.