Manch seeks improved policing in slum areas

Even as the the sensational rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl of Salia Sahi generated heat in the  Assembly, hundreds of slum-dwellers took to the streets demanding higher compensation for the family of the victim and improved policing in the area.

Members of the Basti Surakshya Manch staged a road blockade by burning tyres along the Jayadev Vihar-Ekamra Kanan Road. They demanded that the Government sanction a compensation of `20 lakh for the kin of the victim.

They also demanded that Commissionerate Police augment policing in the slum where anti-socials have been ruling the roost and average resident is feeling insecure. The Government must establish a police outpost in Salia Sahi, Anjan Nath of the Manch said.

 A delegation of the slum residents later met Police Commissioner Dr R P Sharma and demanded that the culprit be given the harshest of punishments.

The eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered by a daily wage earner, Kiran Sahu, on Tuesday afternoon. Her body was recovered from a secluded place near Loyola School.

Sahu, who was arrested following the incident, was produced before a local court on Wednesday. He has been charged under Sections (302 murder), 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.

Sahu had approached the victim’s house on Tuesday afternoon seeking location of a particular address. When the victim’s father asked the girl to accompany the accused to the address, Sahu took advantage of the situation and committed the heinous crime.

While locals had seen him taking her away, CCTV footage from a camera placed in the gates of a private pharmacy college near the school also corroborated the fact and showed the accused waylaying her.