In another case of brutality, a 13-year-old Dalit girl was raped and killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, said police.
Her body was found in a sugarcane field on Saturday.
Two men from her village have been arrested.
The girl had been strangled, her eyes gouged out and her tongue cut.
The incident reportedly took place on Friday in a village close to the Nepal border. Her body was found in the fields of one of the accused.
The district police chief Satyendra Kumar said, “The girl’s post mortem has confirmed rape. The two accused had been arrested already. We will file charges for rape, murder and also book them under the National Security Act.”
According to reports, the girl had gone missing on Friday afternoon.
“We went looking for her everywhere and finally found her in the sugarcane field. Her eyes had been gouged out. Her tongue was cut and she had been strangled with a ‘dupatta’,” the father of the girl said.
Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati condemned the incident on Twitter calling it ‘extremely shameful’.
“What is the difference between the governments of the Samajwadi Party and the present BJP if such incidents keep happening?” she asked.
Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad also commented on the incident. “Dalit oppression is at its peak under the BJP government… If it is not the jungle raj, then what is? Our daughters are not safe, our homes are not safe, there is an atmosphere of fear everywhere. Yogi Adityanath should resign,” he said.
It may be recalled that on August 6, a 6-year-old girl in Hapur district was kidnapped and raped. The police arrested the accused on Friday. The girl remains in a hospital and has been through at least one surgery. Doctors say she is stable but not out of danger.
