PATNA: Two Mahadalit girls aged 8 and 12 years were raped and subsequently one of them was killed on the outskirts of Phulwarisharif in Bihar's capital, police said on Tuesday.
The incident took place when the girls hailing from a Mushahar tola under Phulwarisharif police station in the state capital had gone to collect firewood from a nearby field on Monday. Mushahars are the most backward and poor community in the state.
It is not, however, confirmed whether the victims were lured by the tormentors or forcibly taken to a secluded place to commit the crime. The victims were found in a field on Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after they had gone missing. Assistant superintendent of police (ASP), Phulwarisharif, Vikram Sehag said that the police got information about two minor girls lying unconscious in an abandoned field adjacent to the road leading to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) post.
"When the police team reached there, it found one of the girls dead. The other girl was alive. She was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Patna, where she is battling for life,” ASP said.
The other victim was declared dead by the doctors at AIIMS-Patna. Later her body was sent for postmortem. The residents of the area ascertained the identity of the victims and subsequently their family members were informed about the incident. The ASP said that a sniffer dog was pressed into service to trace the exit route of the accused. A forensic team also visited the spot to collect fingerprints and other scientific evidence. However, no breakthrough has been made in the case so far, he added.
Station house officer (SHO) of Phulwarisharif police station Shafir Alam said that prima facie it appeared that the girls fell unconscious during rape. The accused left the spot in fear of being apprehended for murder, he added.
Meanwhile, Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajeev Mishra said that a special investigation team has been set up to probe the incident. “Raids are underway to arrest the accused,” he told this reporter over the phone.
The deceased was eight-year-old while the 12-year-old survivor was admitted to the intensive care unit of AIIMS-Patna for treatment. Earlier, agitated over the horrifying incident, residents of Mushahar Toli staged a protest and demanded action against the culprits.
The incident is set to snowball into a major political controversy.