india

Updated: May 31, 2019 23:55 IST

A nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by a 28-year-old man on Thursday in Kempty area of Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district, police said. The accused, said to be from the upper caste, is absconding.

Four years ago, the girl’s older cousin was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by upper-caste men in the same village. Police said accused Vipin Pawar has two children and runs a grocery store in the village where both he and the girl live. The girl, whose family belongs to the labour class, is a student of class 6.

“The incident happened on Thursday morning around 10.30 am when the girl was going to fetch water. Her parents were out on work at the time of the incident,” said inspector ML Jakhmola of Kempty police station, who is handling the investigations. He said the accused, whose shop falls on the way to the water source, stopped the girl, “gagged her and took her to an empty room adjoining his shop where he raped her”. He then warned her to keep mum and let her go.

The inspector said the girl was crying when her mother returned home in the afternoon. On her mother’s persistent queries, she told her what had happened. “The girl’s family lodged a complaint against the absconding accused at around 10.30 pm on Thursday after which a case was registered under relevant sections of the India Penal Code, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” he said.

The girl was taken to a Dehradun hospital for medical tests on Friday. “We are searching Vipin’s relative’s place in Dehradun where he is suspected to be hiding. We are probing his last mobile phone location,”he said.