Two more minors raped, murdered at weddings in UP, Chhattisgarh
A minor girl was raped and killed at a wedding in Uttar Pradesh's Etah on Thursday, just three days after an eerily similar incident caused massive public outrage. Horrified already? This is not it. Another girl child was raped, murdered at a wedding on Wednesday, this time in Chhattisgarh. Now girls shouldn't attend weddings too? Where will this stop? Read on for blood-curdling details.
The nine-year-old girl went missing at around 10pm on Thursday while attending a wedding with her family members at a house close to hers in Etah's Keltha village. It took her family five hours to find her body at a nearby farm. The accused, identified as 25-year-old Pintu Kumar, was one of the cooks hired for the event, according to Hindustan Times.
He reportedly lured the victim to a nearby shop and then committed the crimes. He was nabbed and booked for murder, rape and concealing evidence under relevant Indian Penal Code sections and also charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. The girl's body has been sent for post-mortem.
Meanwhile, in Chhattisgarh's Kabirdham district, a 10-year-old girl was brutally raped and killed on Wednesday night much like the incidents in Etah. The accused in this case was the groom's 25-year-old friend named Uttam Sahu. During interrogation, Sahu admitted to bludgeoning the girl to death after raping her in Bagharra village.
These incidents come at the heels of the widely publicized rapes and murders of minors in Kathua and Surat. The alarming rise of sexual crimes against young girls in India has forced the Center to consider awarding death penalty to those convicted of raping minors aged under 12. Currently, the maximum punishment for rape convicts is life imprisonment.
One child is sexually abused in India every 15 minutes, claims government data. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, incidents of child rape shot up by over 82% in 2016 as compared to 2015. The maximum number of such crimes (15% of the national total) in 2016 were reported in Uttar Pradesh.
