BHOPAL: Amid protests and talks on safety of girls in other states, Bhopal witnessed rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl on Saturday night. She was raped near her house and her family members kept on searching for her in the entire area with help of Kamla Nagar police and other residents. However, it was dark all around in the area because of power cut and thus no one spotted her when she was allegedly taken into the house by the accused. The parents of the minor girl when approached Kamla Nagar police, they swung into action after a delay of over an hour. The cops even taunted family members by saying that the girl has eloped with someone and showed a lackadaisical approach towards the case. The accused has separated from his wife and was living in the area for the last two months in a rented house.
However, on Sunday ministers and other leaders reached the girl’s house and spoke to family members. A heavy force from 20 police stations was deployed in the area to avoid any untoward incident. Sensing gravity of the situation, twenty police teams, including cops from women police station, searched the girl and in the morning her body was found near her house. Seven policemen, including an ASI Dev Krishna, two head constables Narendra and Jagdeesh and four constables Roop Singh, Prahlad, Vishnu and Virendra Singh were suspended for their failure in discharging their duties and a reward of Rs 20,000 was announced by newly appointed IG Yogesh Deshmukh on the head of the absconding accused.
DIG Irshad Wali said the accused was alone at the time of incident and when the girl set out to bring gutkha for her grandmother, he took her inside and raped her. He later killed her to hide his heinous crime. The accused broke the wall of his house to bring her body out and then he dumped the body near the house of the girl. Her hands and legs were bore marks of rope. He then left the area. When police teams entered his house, they found signs of brutality and then they started looking for the accused, said superintendent of police (SP) south Sampat Upadhyay. On the other hand, initial inquiry suggested rape and strangulation as the reason for the girl’s death. The accused was thus booked for rape and murder and other relevant Sections of IPC.
Home minister Bala Bacchan also took cognisance of the incident and spoke to media on the issue
The matter will be taken up in a fast track court for the victim under the age of 12 years.
The apathy of police towards crime against women was witnessed once again. Earlier when a 20-year-old girl was raped near railway station Habibganj, cops had refused to entertain her and FIR was lodged only after intervention of media. Four cops were also suspended at that time for refusing to register complaint of the girl. Congress had alleged that the BJP government failed to stop crimes against women.
