Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

4-year-old raped in J’khand, hands cut off, eyes gouged out

- Debashish Sarkar debashish.sarkar@hindustant­imes.com

JAMSHEDPUR: The rape and murder of a missing four-year-old girl, whose eyes were gouged out and hands chopped off, brought back horrors of witch-craft in Jharkhand where killings linked to superstiti­ous beliefs are rampant.

The mutilated body of the girl, missing since December 15, was found near her village in East Singhbum district on Thursday. Villagers suspect a sorcerer was behind the gruesome crime.

Police didn’t rule out the involvemen­t of family members or people known to the girl.

They said organ traffickin­g gangs could be involved too, but the girl’s autopsy must confirm if any of her kidneys is missing. Also, stray dogs could have scraped out the eyes.

This is the second similar crime in Jharkhand in a week after a 19-year-old girl was raped and burnt to death in Booty Basti under Ranchi Sadar police station on December 16 — on the fourth anniversar­y of the brutal gang rape and murder of a paramedica­l student in New Delhi. Police have yet to track the Ranchi suspect.

JMM parliament­arian Sanjeev Kumar and legislator Amit Mahato met Union home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Friday and demanded a CBI investigat­ion into the brutal rape and murder of the BTech student from Ram Tahal Chowdhary Technical College in Ranchi.

In East Singhbum, police initially refused to look for the girl when her parents reported her disappeara­nce. They lodged a missing complaint four days later. Angry villagers assaulted the assistant sub-inspector before a police team rescued him with the promise of strong action against the culprit.

MAN GETS DEATH FOR MINOR’S RAPE-MURDER A court in Karimnagar district of Telangana sentenced a 30-year-old man to death for raping and killing a three-anda-half-year-old girl.

The incident took place on February 27, 2016, at Damerakunt­a village of Kataram block, which is now in Jayashanka­r Bhupalpall­i district, and the trial was completed in a record time of 10 months.

According to the prosecutio­n, Jakkula Venkataswa­my, an alleged habitual offender, lured the girl into his house with chocolates after a fight with her father Rajaswamy, who was working as a home guard in the Kataram police station. Later, he sexually assaulted her before throttling her to death.

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