Two men arrested for raping 11yrold girl in Bihar’s Madhubani district

Police in Bihar’s Madhubani district on Monday arrested two men who allegedly raped an 11-year-old girl in a village the night before.

In an FIR lodged at Madhubani’s Kaluahi police station on Monday, the victim’s mother said her daughter was assaulted when she sent her to buy vegetables from one of the accused’s parents, who were away on Sunday evening.

When the girl reached the vegetable seller’s house in Kaluahi police station area, 174km north of Patna, his son and another man locked her inside a room and took turns to rape her, the FIR said. The accused gagged her with a piece of cloth when she screamed for help, the mother said in her complaint.

Station house officer of Kaluahi police station Ramesh Kumar Sharma said accused Rakesh Kumar alias Gopal Singh, 20, and Atul Singh, 19, have been arrested.

They have been booked under Section 376 (G) of Indian Penal Code as well as Sections 4 and 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Posco) Act, the SHO added.

The victim was sent to Madhubani sadar hospital for medical examination and the report was awaited.

If the report of medical examination confirms rape, then the accused could be awarded death sentence under the new provisions of the POCSO Act.

Last Saturday, the Union cabinet approved an ordinance allowing courts to pronounce the death penalty for those convicted of raping children below the age of 12.

The ordinance came following countrywide outrage after the gang rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua in Jammu and the alleged gang rape of a teenager in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh where a BJP MLA is the prime accused.

On Sunday, President Ram Nath Kovind signed the ordinance.

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