Nine-year-old girl raped by panchayat member, three others in Bihar

india

Updated: Oct 16, 2017 17:57 IST

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by a panchayat member and three other men in southwest Bihar’s Kaimur district, police said on Monday, in the latest case of sexual violence against children in the eastern state.

The girl, who belongs to the Mahadalit community comprising the poorest among Dalits, identified panchayat ward member Ekbal Khan and Sonu Khan as the men who raped her on Saturday.

Police said they were arrested on Sunday and sent to jail in Bhabua, headquarters of Kaimur district 196km southwest of state capital Patna.

The girl’s father named Ekbal Khan, Sonu Khan, and two other men in his complaint registered at the women’s police station in Bhabua.

He said his daughter was grazing pigs outside Nandana village in Chainpur police station area, about 10km from Bhabua, when the panchayat member and the other men took her to a nearby field and raped her.

The police said a team of doctors conducted the medical examination of the girl and that she would be produced in a local court in Bhabua on Monday to record her statement.

This is the fourth incident of rape of minors in Kaimur and adjoining Rohtas district in the last two months.

A 2007 study sponsored by the Centre had estimated that every second child in India had faced one or more forms of sexual abuse. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi reported the highest sexual abuse.

A data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2015 said 8800 cases of rape on children were registered across the country under the stringent Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) act.

The NCRB report suggests that for every sexual assault reported under the POCSO act, another child faced sexual abuse or harassment in some form or the other.