Minor found raped, killed in Surat with 86 injury marks
AHMEDABAD: A minor girl was allegedly held captive, tortured and raped before being killed, the Surat Police said on Sunday, even as protests continued across the country over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu’s Kathua.
The minor girl, who was yet to be identified, was found in Surat’s Bhestan locality 10 days ago and had 86 injury marks on her body. She is believed to be between nine and 11 years of age.
The police said the victim’s autopsy report indicated she was tortured and raped. Her body was spotted by a passerby near a cricket ground on the morning of April 6, they said.
Police said the post-mortem suggested a wooden object was used to cause the injuries.
The reports surfaced amid outrage across the country over the gang-rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, and the alleged rape of a teen by Uttar Pradesh’s BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar.
Protests against the rape cases were held in several cities including Delhi and Mumbai on Sunday, echoing the mass rallies against the gang rape of a 23-year-old in the national capital in December, 2012.
In Surat, people held a silent candlelight march. Speaking about the latest rape case, police commissioner of Surat, Satish Sharma, told Reuters: “The body was recovered on April 6 by the side of a highway and, according to a post mortem report, the girl was sexually assaulted and murdered on April 5.”
The post-mortem revealed the girl had been strangled and smothered, with 86 signs of minor injuries, including sexual assault, he said. Some of the injuries were old.
An FIR has been lodged under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 376 (rape) of the IPC and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against unidentified persons, Sharma said at a press conference. Ganesh Govekar, a doctor at the City Civil Hospital, where the autopsy was conducted, said: “Going by the nature of injuries, they seem to have been caused over a period ranging from one week to a day prior to the recovery of the body...”
The police commissioner said the investigation has been handed over to the city police’s crime branch. “We have gone through the data of missing children in Gujarat and also in other states like Odisha and West Bengal, as she might be from another state,” he said. Police have announced a ~20,000 reward for anyone helping in identifying the girl or giving information about the culprits, Sharma said.