Minor snatched from home, gangraped, found tied and mouth stuffed with sand in Dumka

A 12-year-old tribal girl is battling for life at a hospital in Dumka, over 300 km northeast of Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi after she was allegedly kidnapped and gangraped by three men on Sunday night.

The incident took place late in the night when the girl was forcibly taken away by the three accused when she was closing the main doors of the house. They trio allegedly took her to a nearby under construction building and raped her, police said.

When the girl did not return, her aunt with whom she was living for a while, started looking for her but failed to locate her. The survivor is from Pakur district and was living with her aunt here. Her uncle is a government school teacher while her father is a farmer.

On Monday morning, one of the neighbours found the girl lying on the ground with her legs tied with a belt and mouth stuffed with sand.

The neighbours informed the police who admitted her to Sadar hospital in an unconscious state.

Confirming the rape incident Dumka superintendent of police Kishore Kaushal said, “It’s a rape case and after medical examination it would be confirmed whether it was gang rape or not.”

The SP reached the incident spot and also met other family members as well as neighborus. He said dog squad has been pressed into service for tracing the culprits.

Dumka civil surgeon Suresh Kumar said the girl was unconscious when she was admitted into the hospital’s ICU.

“We have collected the vaginal swab of the girl and have sent it for culture. It would help in determining the whetehr it was a gang rape, ” Kumar said.

The girl gained consciousness later in the afternoon.

The gang rape in Dumka comes on the heels of a spate of rapes and murders of minor girls in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh this month that has shocked the country which was already outraged by the horrific gang rape and murder of a minor in Kathua in Jammu and the murder of the father of a rape survivor in Unnao in UP.