Amid allegations of rape, two minor girls were found dead and a third battling for her life in West Bengal, police said Friday,but they ruled out possibility of sexual offence in two cases.
A Class 10 student who had checked into a hotel in Nadia district's Mayapur died Thursday of excessive bleeding. Following her death, the family members have lodged a complaint of rape but police ruled it out.
"Prima-facie, there is no evidence to suggest the girl was raped. According to medical reports, she died due to excessive bleeding. We are investigating the cause of death and arrested the hotel owner and girl's friend," said Nadia Superintendent of Police (SP) Sabyasachi Raman Mishra said.
According to police, the 17-year-old girl, a resident of Kalna in Burdwan district had come to Mayapur Wednesday with three male friends without informing her parents. On Thursday morning, she was taken to Krishnagar Sadar Hospital in Nadia district by her friends where doctors declared her dead.
In another incident in North 24-Parganas, a 12-year-old girl was found strangulated to death Thursday in her house with her clothes torn apart, prompting her family to suspect rape.
"It is not a case of rape but only murder and we have arrested a person in that regard," said North 24-Parganas police chief Sougata Sen.
The incident happened in Bisharpara, near Barrackpore, in the district when the victim's daily wager parents returned home in the evening to find the Class 5 girl lying dead in her bed with her clothes torn.
In yet another incident in Gaighata again in the district, an eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped and now is battling for life in a city hospital with critical injuries.
The Class 3 student was discovered in a pool of blood inside her house Wednesday. She was admitted to a hospital in the district but with her condition deteriorating, she was shifted to R.G. Kar Hospital in the city Thursday.
"We have received a complaint of rape and are investigating the matter. No arrest has been made so far," an officer of Gaighata police station said.
The incidents have occurred at a time when the Mamata Banerjee government is facing a severe public backlash following a spate of rapes and murders in the state within a short span of time.
The National Crime Records Bureau has put the state atop the charts concerning crimes against women, with 30,942 such incidents recorded in 2012.