Days after the uproar over the Khatua rape, an 11-year-old girl was raped and murdered at the Podhi village in Chatthisgarh’s Kawardha district on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
The police have arrested 25-year-old Uttam Sahu for the crime and charged him under relevant Sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
In another shocking incident, a nine-year-old girl was forcibly dragged from a wedding, raped and murdered by an inebriated man in the western U.P. town of Etah on Thursday night.
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The crime took place in the Keltha locality under the Aliganj Police Station. The accused has been arrested.
The body of the 11-year-old rape victim from the Podhi village of Chattisgarh’s Kawardha district was recovered on Thursday morning from near a stream outside the village.
“After the rape, the accused tried to strangulate her but he was unsuccessful. He then attacked her with a big stone and killed her,” said Lal Umed Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP), Kawardha district.
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He added, “The accused is a friend of the victim’s relative. He was produced before a court today.”
Police sources said the accused was apprehended as the victim was last seen with him, and bloodstains were found on his clothes.
Etah incident
In the incident involving a nine-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Etah on Thursday night, the accused, identified as Pintu (22), a driver and father of two, has been arrested.
“On the complaint lodged by the family members of the girl, a case has been registered against the accused under the POSCO Act,” Circle Officer-Aliganj Ajay Bhadauria said.
Also in Etah, on April 16, a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped and strangulated to death when she had gone with her family to attend a wedding near the Mandi Samiti gate on Aliganj Road. The accused had been hired to set up tents for a wedding.
Both incidents in western Uttar Pradesh come at a time when the Yogi Adityanath government is fighting public anger over the rape of a teenager, allegedly by a ruling party MLA, in Unnao.
Apart from this, two minor girls were allegedly raped in separate incidents in the Siddharthnagar and Hamirpur districts earlier this week.
In Siddharthnagar, a six-year-old girl was raped by her neighbour while attending a marriage in the Chilhia the area, and a 14-year-old girl was raped by three men in a village in the Binwar area of the Hamirpur district when she was grazing cattle.
( With Inputs from PTI )