PATNA: Amid rising public outrage over increasing crimes against women in the country, a five-year-old child was kidnapped and allegedly raped by an auto-rickshaw driver in Darbhanga of Bihar.
Police said the auto driver lured the girl away while she was playing outside her house on Friday. He took her to an orchard, raped her and vanished. The child was later taken to the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital for treatment.
“The accused has been arrested. The process of charge-sheeting him under relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act will be completed within the next 24 hours,” police said.
As per the available statistics, 1,165 rape cases have been lodged in Bihar between January and October 2019.
Of these, 85 cases have been reported from capital city Patna, which is the highest in the state. As many as 79 cases were recorded in Katihar during the period, followed by 74 in Purina, 67 in Araria, 58 in Muzaffarpur, 56 in Gaya and 42 in Darbhanga.
Earlier this week, police recovered charred bodies of two women from Buxar and Samastipur districts. They have not been able to identify the victims in both these cases.
Concerned over the rising crime against women in Bihar, the state government has asked police and administration to ensure speedy trial of the accused.
ADG (headquarters) Jitendra Kumar said, “Police officials have been directed to file charge-sheets against the accused immediately in order to ensure speedy trial”.
Opposition parties, especially RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and former chief minister Rabri Devi have accused the state government of failure in dealing with the situation.
In a tweet on Saturday after the Darbhanga incident, Tejashwi slammed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi for avoiding questions on rising incidents of crime against women in the state.
Tejashwi said, “It seems rapists are moving around freely due to the state government’s failure in adequately dealing with the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, where it even tried to save the accused”.
