Police said the incident took place around 10 am when the accused took the girl out on the pretext of taking her to a shop to eat.
A five-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and murdered in a Gurgaon village on Sunday morning. Police have detained her neighbour, a 22-year-old labourer from Bihar, for the crime. Police said that during preliminary questioning, he allegedly confessed that he committed the crime under the influence of alcohol.
Police said that a group of locals beat up the accused and prevented them from taking him into custody. Another group pelted stones at a police vehicle and blocked a road, demanding that the accused be handed over to them to ‘deliver swift justice’.
Police said the incident took place around 10 am when the accused took the girl out on the pretext of taking her to a shop to eat. Instead, he took her into the bushes behind her house and allegedly sexually assaulted her before killing her.
DCP (South) Dheeraj Setia said, “The girl had injuries on her private parts and neck. The cause of death will be known after a post-mortem, which will be conducted by a medical board on Monday. The accused is a neighbour and was a frequent visitor to their house. He admitted he was drunk at the time.”
The DCP confirmed that some locals pelted stones at police and tried to obstruct officers from arresting the accused. “We rescued him and took him to another location. There was some anger among locals. But people should not take the law into their hands. Action will be taken against them,” he said.
The victim’s father, a labourer from UP, said they had celebrated her birthday on Saturday and the accused, along with other tenants, was present.
“He has been living here for the past 6-7 months. On an earlier occasion too, he had taken my daughter out but not for a long time. Today, I left for work at 9 am. My wife and three children — two sons aged 10 and 2 and my daughter — were at home. When my daughter did not return for a while, my wife informed me and she went with a neighbour to look for her,” said the father.
He said his wife noticed the accused standing next to their daughter’s body in a farm behind their house. “He started to run and was caught by the villagers. My daughter was lying motionless on the ground and was bleeding… There were some bite marks on her neck and bruises. We took her to government hospital, where doctors said she was dead… All I want is justice. I wanted to enroll her in a school, but then Covid came and schools shut,” said the girl’s father.
An FIR was registered against the accused under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 376 (2) (i) (rape), Section 6 of the POCSO Act and sections 3 (1) (i) and 3 (2) (v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act).
This story first appeared on indianexpress.com