2 minors raped, killed during weddings in UP, Chhattisgarh

SEXUAL ASSAULTS Accused involved in both the incidents arrested

THE INCIDENT IN UP TOOK PLACE IN ETAH, THE SAME DISTRICT WHERE ANOTHER MINOR GIRL WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AND MURDERED ABOUT 50KM AWAY THREE DAYS AGO

LUCKNOW/RAIPUR: Two girls were raped and murdered during wedding ceremonies in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, police said on Friday, adding to a number of brutal sexual assaults reported across India this week.

The incident in Uttar Pradesh took place in Etah on Thursday night, the same district where another minor girl was sexually assaulted and murdered about 50km away three days ago. She too was attacked while attending a wedding.

Police said the accused, 25-year-old Pintu Kumar, has been arrested and booked for murder, rape and concealing evidence after the nine-year-old girl’s father filed a complaint. He was also charged under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, they added.

“The girl was found missing by her family members at about 10pm on Thursday while they were attending a ‘tilak’ function in a nearby house in Keltha village of Aliganj area in Etah district,” additional superintendent of police (ASP) Sanjay Kumar said. “Her body was found at about 3am on Friday in a farm, 100 metres from the house after a search,” Kumar said.

In Kabirdham district of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, a 10-year-old girl was raped and killed during a wedding function by the friend of the bridegroom. Uttam Sahu, 25, admitted to raping and killing the girl by hitting her head with a stone in Bagharra village on Wednesday night, police said on Friday.

Elsewhere, an eight-month old girl was raped and murdered and her body was thrown in the basement of a building in Indore, police said on Friday.

Police said the suspect had been identified and he was known to the family.

Concerns over rape, and attacks involving children in particular, have been at a peak since the cases that emerged from UP’S Unnao and Jammu’s Kathua, where the victim was an eight-year-old girl.

Though the Kathua gangrape and murder was in the news for months, the backlash erupted after the chargesheet filed by the crime branch of the Jammu and Kashmir police gave gruesome details of the crime.