In a shocking development, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Sunday made an insensitive comment with regard to the rape and murder of a minor tribal girl in Dumka. “Incidents happen. Where do they not occur?” Soren reportedly said.
The body of the teenage girl was found hanging from a tree in a field in Dumka on Saturday. The Jharkhand Police arrested Arman Ansari and registered a case of rape and murder against him.
“A rape and murder case has been registered under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and SC/ST Act. Accused Arman Ansari was arrested. We want to collect evidence and file charge sheet soon,” Amber Lakra, Superintendent of Police, Dumka told the media.
According to reports, the minor tribal girl was allegedly sexually exploited by Ansari on the pretext of marriage and killed and hanged from the tree in Dumka. This came days after another minor girl was set ablaze by one Shahrukh Moin on 23 August. The girl succumbed to her injuries on 28 August, causing outrage among the locals.
However, the two unfortunate incidents have also taken a political turn as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey slammed the Soren government in Jharkhand for the increasing atrocities on Dalit girls and said that “underage Dalits and tribal girls are being exploited and the government is sleeping”. Taking to Twitter, Dubey also claimed that the minor girl was 3 months pregnant.
“From the news received from the relatives of the minor girl in Dumka, it appears that the girl was 3 months pregnant. This should be investigated. ‘Grooming gangs’ are active in Jharkhand, in which Bangladeshi Muslim boys are exploiting underage Dalit and tribal girls and the Soren government is sleeping,” Dubey alleged in a tweet in Hindi.
After the two back-to-back shocking incidents of atrocities against minor girls in Dumka, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo is scheduled to visit the district on Monday to meet higher police officials.
“The Commission has come across with yet another incident of alleged rape and murder of a minor tribal girl by a man named Arman Ansari…under Mufassil police station on Friday. The accused, identified as Arman Ansari, has been arrested and a case has been registered under relevant sections of IPC, POCSO and SC–ST Act,” an official statement from the child rights body said. According to the statement, the NCPCR team will take stock of the status of the case by convening “a meeting with DC, SP, Investigating Officer of the case and doctors who conducted the autopsy of the minor victim, besides to meet/interact with the family members of the deceased minor girl”.