GAIGHATA: An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped and left critically injured by her 16-year-old neighbour in Gaighata, North 24-Parganas, barely six days after the brutal rape-and-murder of a 13-year-old had rocked the area.

Within six days of the alleged rape and the brutal murder of a class VI girl, the rape horror comes back again at Gaighata in North 24 Parganas after an eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped and was critically injured by her 16-year-old neighbour, who is also her distant relative.

The alleged rape happened on Wednesday at Tantipara in Rampur, barely a kilometer from Rajapur Colony, the site of the rape-murder.

The girl's father lodged a complaint against the accused boy — who also happens to be her distant relative — on Thursday after admitting her to RG Kar hospital after her condition deteriorated.

The youth has gone into hiding, said a police source.

According to the complaint lodged by their family, the Class III student was home alone on Wednesday evening when the boy entered and raped her before fleeing, leaving her critically injured.

After returning, the girl's parents found her lying in a pool of blood and heard what happened. "The girl was brutally tortured sexually by one of her relatives who used to come to her house. She was bleeding profusely and suffering from acute pain in her abdomen. She was rushed to the Bongaon Jiban Ratan Dhar Subdivisional Hospital but on Thursday evening she was shifted to RG Kar after her condition deteriorated," said a local.

The girl's father, a smalltime trader, lodged a complaint with Gaighata police station. "We have received the complaint and are looking for the accused," said a senior police officer.

In New Barrackpore, a 12-year-old girl was found murdered in her home on Thursday, with her family members suspecting she had been raped.

The manner in which the Class V girl was found - under a bed mattress with a towel around her neck and her clothes torn off - suggests rape, said a family member, though police suspect she had been strangled.

A neighbour has been arrested in this connection.

The girl, who studied in Aharampur Sahara Girl's High School, was alone in her Bisharpara home when she was allegedly murdered. Her father, a daily wage-earner, had left home in the morning while her mother had left on some work.

It was the girl's mother who discovered the body when she came back in the evening.

Some of the locals said they had heard the girl scream but had dismissed it, thinking she was being admonished by her mother.

The police, however said they did not receive any rape complaint.

"We suspect that the girl was strangled. We have arrested Bapi Ghosh, a local broker who had an feud with the family following a dispute over rent, on the basis of the complaint lodged by the victim's family," said Kallol Ganai, DCP(headquarters), Barackpore.

The incident comes only six days after a class VI girl was allegedly raped and brutally murdered near her residence at Rajaput Colony in Gaighata while the condition of the girl's body, with her left eye gouged out, half her left ear bitten off and injury marks all over, bore out the inhuman torture inflicted on her.

The last incident occurred at Gaighata's Tantipara in Rampur, barely 1 km away from Rajapur Colony.