Rape, murder of 3-year-old sparks protest

Aneesha Sareen

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11

In a brutal murder, a three-year-and-nine-month-old girl was raped, murdered and her body dumped in the forest area near Colony No. 4 late last night. The victim went missing from her residence in the colony at 9 pm and her limp, nude body was found by colony residents at 6 am deep in the forest. The murder and rape incident sparked off a massive protest by the residents.

(See video: Violence follows 3-yr-old's rape, murder in Chandigarh)

The girl was last seen playing with a man following which she suddenly disappeared. After searching for the girl for an hour, the residents informed the police at 10.15 pm.

The body of the girl was found in the wee hours dumped near the nullah in the forest. The body was tangled in the bushes in reverse condition. There were grievous injuries on her private parts, with blood spattered on her genitals, suggesting that she had died of the injuries suffered in a sexual assault, the police said. Blood was also oozing out of her mouth. A bottle of whiskey was also found lying near the body suggesting that the tormentor was drunk.

The recovery of the victim’s body sparked off violent protests in the area with the residents demanding immediate suspension of the SHO and blaming the police for taking them lightly in the beginning and wasting crucial time.

“We first called the police at 10.15 pm, more than an hour after trying in vain to search for her. After calling the control room at least six times, two policemen came in a PCR at 10.45 pm. The police wasted a lot of time, they made us sit near the school and kept doing paper work and recording the complaint before they went with us to search for the body after wasting over 90 minutes,” said Ram Sajivan, the victim’s father, who is employed in house keeping at Elante Mall.
The aggrieved father added that the police was reluctant to go with them in the jungle and replied that they did not know the way inside.
“The police also stopped the search operation midway and when we went to the police at 2.30 am pleading to accompany us in our search in the jungle, a policeman replied that it was their ‘sleeping’ time”, he alleged. It was the colony residents who traced the body and then informed the police.
The victim had just started going to Anganwadi and was full of life and very cheerful. She was the youngest of my three daughters”, added the father.
Police have registered a case of rape and murder against the unidentified accused. The police denied the allegations and stated that they were with the family members throughout in the search operation.

Protest on road, commuters a harassed lot
As the body was shifted to a hospital for its post-mortem examination, the colony residents swarmed the road and blocked the traffic opposite Bhushan factory near Elante Mall. The residents then picked up stones lying on the road and pelted them at the escort vehicle of the UT SSP, Sukhchain Singh Gill. Two other vehicles, including a police van and a private car, were damaged. The police canecharged the protesters and used heavy rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. Over 400 police personnel were pressed into service and the road was closed for four hours leading to inconvenience to commuters stuck in the jam. Later, two separate cases of rioting were registered and seven persons were arrested in this regard.

Probe marked; Station House Officer told to go on leave
To look into the lapses in the incident, UT DIG AS Cheema ordered an inquiry to be conducted by SP RN Meena (commandant IRB). Inspector Devinder Sharma, SHO, Industrial Area police station, has been asked to proceed on 10 days’ leave following the incident.

Cops suffer injuries
As many as 25 police personnel were injured, including ASP Parminder Singh, who received an injury on the neck, and head constable Yashpal, who was hit on the ear and received a grievous injury.

Confusion over identity of accused
The identity of the accused, who had abducted the girl and abandoned her after committing rape and murder, is a matter of confusion. While some claimed that the girl was picked by an aged person wearing a turban, who was roaming in the colony for the past several days, some claimed they saw a youth wearing a red T-shirt taking the girl out of the locality. When the girl went missing, there was a power cut at Colony No. 4 between 8.30 pm and 9 pm.

Cops caught napping
The UT police were caught napping when at around 12.45 pm, the residents gathered at the light point near Colony No. 4 and started pelting stones at the vehicles with no police personnel around. The residents then damaged the windowpanes of two vehicles and there were only two traffic constables present at that time. The police force reached the road after half an hour when the residents attacked the police vehicles with stones.

Officers take turns to calm protesters
SSP (Traffic) Maneesh Chaudhery, DSP (Crime) Jagbir Singh, DSP (Operations Cell) Satbir Singh, Inspector Narinder Patial and Inspector Malkiat Singh tried in vain to calm the protesters.