Within days of the barbaric act of killing a 3-year old girl at Aligarh surfaced, another act of child abuse has occurred in Varanasi when a man named Shahnawaj was caught red-handed after he raped a 9-year old Dalit girl.

According to the Times of India, Shahnawaj, a native of the town, had called the victim to his place on the pretext of giving her some clothes. As soon as the victim reached his place, he took her inside a room and allegedly raped her.

Reportedly, the girl began to cry after he tried to rape her and later pushed her outside his room. Later, the girl returned home and informed family members about the incident, who caught the accused and took him to the police station.

The police have lodged an FIR under section 376 (rape), 511 (punishable offence) of IPC, 325 SC/ST Act and section 7/8 POCSO and sent the girl for medical examination after taking the accused into the custody, said inspector Sharad Tripathi.

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Similarly, in March 2019, a 17-year-old minor Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped by five men in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district. The accused had even reportedly filmed a video and threatened to make it public if the girl reported the matter to anyone. The five accused, Danish, Farid, Umama, Maj and Sabur were arrested by the police.

In a similar deplorable incident at Aligarh, a Muslim man named Zahid had brutally choked a minor girl, Tina Sharma (name changed) to death over an argument with her family regarding a small loan amount. The brutal incident had shocked the conscience of the nation.

Zahid had brutally choked Tina with a dupatta (scarf) and hid the body in his house in a straw bag. After three days when the corpse started emitting a foul smell, Zahid threw Tina in a pile of trash. Tina’s body was completely decomposed with her eyes gouged out.