11-Year-Old Girl Gang-Raped And Killed In Bihar; 5 Arrested (image/satyarthi.org.in)

Sitamarhi, Bihar: An 11-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped and murdered by five youths in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district after a dispute over plucking a mango from an orchard, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on May 31. A day later, the victim’s family lodged a formal complaint about the girl’s disappearance at the Nanpur police station.

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Amit Ranjan, Superintendent of Police (SP), Sitamarhi, said that a special investigation team (SIT) was formed under the leadership of deputy SP, Pupri, to solve the case. Following an investigation, the police found that five young men brutally assaulted the minor after she plucked a mango from an orchard.

Identified as Satyam Kumar, Ranvir Kumar, Harshvardhan Kumar, Ajit Kumar and Ravi Kumar, the accused are all residents of Chatgaura under Nanpur police station limits. Following an arrest, the five confessed to the crime during interrogation.

The five accused took her to a nearby under-construction building where they raped her, police said. The officials added that the child’s health deteriorated during sexual assault. After she died, the accused hung her body from the roof of a building to make it seem like a case of suicide.

“Since all the accused have been arrested, we will recommend the case for speedy trial. Chargesheet will be filed in the case at the earliest,” SP Amit Ranjan added.

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The crime has sparked tension in Chatgaura village, with residents demanding the death penalty for the accused “The accused should be hanged,” a close relative of the victim reportedly told local journalists at Sitamarhi Sadar Hospital, where the postmortem of the body was conducted.

This incident comes amid a series of disturbing cases of sexual violence in Bihar. At least three cases of rape and and murder were reported from Muzaffarpur district in the past one week alone.