india

Updated: Jan 31, 2019 21:30 IST

A 12-year-old girl who went to a field near her home in West Bengal’s Mushidabad district to hand over lunch to her father was allegedly gang-raped and murdered on Wednesday, according to the police.

The class VI student left her home in Ranitala area, about 230 km from Kolkata, around 12.30 in the afternoon and did not return. Her body was found around 8pm the same day in another field about 200 metres from where she lived.

The police have sent the body for autopsy and begun investigations on a complaint lodged by the girl’s father at Ranitala police station. He claimed his daughter was violated before she was killed.

“There were several injury and scratch marks all over my daughter’s body. Her hands were tied with a rope. The assailants gagged her with her sweater to prevent her from raising an alarm,” the father wrote in his complaint.

“I am certain my daughter was raped before she was killed. But I have no idea why. It’s also possible that they killed her to prevent her from identifying them.”

The man said he had no idea his daughter had not reached home after giving him lunch. “I got information that she was missing around 4pm. Then I started searching for her along with other villagers.”

Samit Talukdar, the officer-in-charge of Ranitala police station, said, “We have started investigations and sent the body for autopsy. The family is poor and the girl wasn’t wearing ornaments. We are in the dark about the motive for the murder.”

Another police officer said on condition of anonymity, “It appears she was brutalised before the murder.”

West Bengal has one of the worst records of crime against women in the country. According to National Crime Records Bureau data, the state accounted for 11.31%, 10.11% and 9.6% of such crimes in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. In 2012, it accounted for 12.67% of crimes against women, making it the worst offender in the country.