patna

Updated: Jan 30, 2018 16:33 IST

A 15-year-old girl was kidnapped for the second time in as many months from a village in Bihar’s West Champaran district on Monday, police said on Tuesday, in another incident of crime against children in the state.

She was kidnapped from Semera Parsa village in Manuwapul police station area in the first week of December last year by a man, who allegedly wanted to marry her, the police said. She was rescued on December 17.

The girl’s mother in her complaint accused the same men — Akhilesh Sah, Manoj and Anandi Sah — of kidnapping her daughter. The accused, residents of the same village, are believed to be factory workers in Delhi.

All of them are absconding, said Mukesh Kumar, in-charge of Sirisiya police outpost.

“This time she has been kidnapped to force her family members to withdraw the case lodged earlier for abducting her in December,” West Champaran superintendent of police (SP) Jayant Kant said.

Kumar added the police did not insist on a medical test after the girl was rescued in December as her family members did not level charges of rape or molestation against the accused.

The girl’s mother said the men barged into her house on Monday and kidnapped her daughter at gunpoint. They also threatened to kill the girl if the case lodged against them earlier was not withdrawn, she said.

The kidnappers fired at the villagers when they tried to chase them, forcing them to retreat, she added. She also alleged that the police was slow to react when she went to the local police station immediately after the incident.

“The police did not bother to chase the culprits,” she said.

At least three incidents of kidnapping, killing or rape of minors have been reported from the district in the last two months.

Seven-year-old Veer Kumar Singh, son of a farmer, had gone missing from Bettiah on January 18. His body was later found from a water tank. Kant said the child was sodomised before being killed.

Five-year-old Shazid was picked up for ransom a day before Veer went missing. Police rescued the child from Kundawa Chainpur locality of Motihari three days after the incident.

On January 20, a five-year-old girl was raped while she was collecting dry woods at Bairia village under Shikarpur police station in West Champaran.