Surat: In a grim reminder of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Pandesara in 2018, the seven-year-old minor, who was allegedly raped by the 20-year-old man in Lalgate area, was also severely brutalized on Tuesday.
Medical examination revealed it was found that the minor has bite marks all over her body inflicted by the accused Jammu Pathan.
“The minor has bite injuries on neck, hand and back as well. She was also forced into oral sex and her private parts were brutalized by the accused,” a senior police official, quoting doctors who examined her, told TOI.
Pathan was caught in the CCTV installed nearby, picking up the girl who was asleep beside her mother on the footpath outside a gargment showroom. He covered the girl’s mouth first and lifted her on his shoulder. Pathan took her inside a nearby lane and sexually assaulted her in the early hours of Tuesday. After a few minutes, the minor is seen running towards her mother who was in deep sleep till then.
Pathan was nabbed from Lal Gate area hours after the crime.
In 2018, a minor girl died after being subjected to brutal rape and there were 86 injuries on her body in Pandesara. A week later, he mother's decomposed body too was found. Investigation had revealed that the mother was first killed in presence of the girl. The prime accused Harsahay Gujjar was arrested from Rajasthan
Police sources said Pathan was earlier arrested a few times for assault and other petty crimes. He used spend time on the footpath close to the spot where the minor lives with her mother. The girl’s mother is physically challenged while her father is under treatment for some ailment in Ankleshwar hospital.
“Police have been rescuing minor children living and begging on the road for the past one month. We are also doing awareness campaigns and we will take more steps to prevent such crimes,” said DJ Chavda, assistant commissioner of police, D-division.
District Child Protection Unit, another important department that is supposed to take steps to ensure safety of children, is also inactive. “We normally do awareness campaigns in schools, put up banners and give advertisements but there are no plans to work for safety of children living on road,” said Jayendra Thakore, district child protection officer.
“Will strangle him to death”
The seven-year-old girl gave a graphic description of her ordeal to the investigators and doctors. Squeezing neck of the teddy bear she was holding, she gave a demonstration how the man strangled her. “Bring him to me, I will twist his neck and kill him,” she told the counsellors and doctors.