Youth arrested for rape, murder of minor in Bengal

Kolkata (The Uttam Hindu): A youth has been arrested on the charges of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl in Gurap of West Bengal's Hoogly district. The accused will be presented at a district court on Monday and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody. As per the statements given by the victim's parents to the police, the girl went missing on Sunday evening. After she did not return home for quite some time, the parents started enquiring with the neighbours about whether any of them had seen her.

On getting information from an eyewitness who saw the girl entering the house of the accused, the parents along with some other neighbours went there and started questioning the accused. Being suspicious of the inconsistent statements given by the accused, they informed the local police station. After thorough search operations, the police found the victim from the accused's house.

The cops immediately took her to the local hospital where she was declared dead. The body of the victim has been sent for post-mortem. Recently, West Bengal has seen frequent cases of rape or rape and murder, and in most cases, the victims had been minor girls. The most-talked-about issue in the matter had been the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of state-run R. G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August this year.

The trial process in the matter was in progress with civic volunteer Sanjay Roy being identified as the "sole prime accused" in the rape and murder crime in the first chargesheet of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).