Shame again: Another minor girl raped in Jalandhar

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, February 23

Hardly a week has passed since the incident of brutal rape of a nine-year-old girl at Kartarpur, another heinous rape has rocked the city. This is the second rape incident in a week and the third incident of a minor girl raped in the Doaba region this year, which has been reported.

A seven-year-old little girl, a resident of New Govind Nagar, was raped by her neighbour on Monday. The accused had acquaintance with the victim’s family. The accused has been identified as Ashutosh, a resident of New Govind Nagar.

Dramatic rise in incidents

• There has been a dramatic rise in the number of brutal rapes. While political parties have been making tall promises regarding the safety of women, incidents of rape of women or even little girls are reported very often. Such cases expose the government’s, be it local or at the Centre, lack of seriousness and political will towards this very serious issue.
• We have read so many stories of women left in fields, abandoned on the road or little girls left in a pool of blood after rape. Earlier this month, a Kapurthala court sentenced to death a 27-year-old man who had raped a seven-year-old girl at the RCF in Kapurthala on March 15, 2021, leaving her battling for her life. The girl, who had suffered severe intestinal damage, had to undergo over 10 surgeries. Even a number of such incidents have also been reported this year.

Taint on society

• February 16: Jalandhar (Kartarpur) : A nine-year-old girl was brutally raped by a 35-year-old man, who took her behind bushes while her parents were working in a field. The man lured her with a papaya to commit the heinous crime. The incident took place at Mand Maur village in Kartarpur and the accused is yet to be nabbed.
• February 5 (Tanda) A migrant labourer was arrested in Tanda for raping a four-year-old girl. The mother of the child told the police that she was washing clothes outside her house when she heard the screams of her daughter and found the accused raping her.
• January 31: A 22-year-old woman from Jalandhar was gang-raped by six men in a car on the way from Ludhiana to Hisar before being thrown out of the moving vehicle.
• January 2 (Jalandhar): A six-year-old girl, who had been missing since the evening of January 1, was allegedly raped and then killed. Her body was found in a sugarcane field at Hazara village located on the Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur road on January 2.
• December 19, 2021 : A 22-year-old model from Jalandhar was allegedly raped by one of her friends in a Zirakpur hotel.

A number of brutal incidents of rape of minor girls have been reported right in the beginning of this year. There is a dramatic rise in the number of incidents of rape, especially those of minors being raped in colonies or quarters of migrants. .

The police said the victim’s family and the accused were next-door neighbours in New Govind Nagar. Their settlement shared the same gate.

The police said the victim earlier also used to play in the house of the accused, so her family had not expected anything like that. On Monday, when the girl was playing in her house, the man accused asked her to come to his room to play. He took her to his room, where she was raped.

The police said while her relatives were in the house, they let her go with him. It is only after the girl returned home crying that her family realised what had happened.

The victim’s mother lives in a village in Uttar Pradesh. She lives here with her father and aunt (chachi).

A case under Section 376-A, B of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act has been registered against the accused. He is still absconding.

Sub-Inspector Avneet Kaur deputed at police station number 8 said, “Owing to the victim being a trustworthy person, the family never doubted him and let the child go with him. The girl’s medical examination was conducted. The report is still awaited. A case has been registered against the accused and the police are on the lookout for him.” While the girl’s family hails from Bihar, the accused was working in a factory in Jalandhar.

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