Patna: A teenage girl was kidnapped, gang-raped and strangled to death over a land dispute in Bihar even as outrage grows over the Unnao rape case in Uttar Pradesh and brutal rape in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir.
The girl bore 52 injury marks on her body. The incident took place at Raushanpur-Sapaha village under Sugauli police station in east Champatan district on Saturday evening, police said.
The 14-year-old girl had gone out to relieve herself along with her sister-in-law when a gang of men kidnapped her at gun-point and gang-raped her before strangling her.
Reports said the accused also tried to rape victim’s sister-in-law but she managed to flee the scene and informed villagers about the incident. By the time the villagers rushed to the spot to rescue her, all the accused had fled.
Police have registered a case against 11 people. “Prime facie, the incident seems to be an act of revenge. Two families were involved in a bitter feud over land for the past several years,” a local senior police official Pankaj Rawat told the media.
According to him, in 2015 police arrested the rape victim’s father and brother for murdering a person belonging to the family of the accused. “Both are still in jail,” Rawat said.
The incident comes close on the heels of a brutal gang-rape of another teenage girl in Patna, the capital city of Bihar, on the same Saturday night.
Police have arrested two accused persons in the case while raids are being conducted to nab the remaining two absconding accused.
The 17-year-old girl was returning home around midnight when four men kidnapped her at gun-point near the GPO roundabout and gang-raped her at an isolated place along the railway track. The victim who belongs to Hilsa town in Nalanda district had lost her way when the men kidnapped her.
Rape remains a matter of grave concern in Bihar. A total of 1,198 rapes were reported last year. In 2016, 1,008 rapes were reported, followed by 1,041 in 2015, 1,127 in 2014 and 1,128 in 2013.
