A 35-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter were allegedly gangraped and the minor smothered to death, after the woman entered into a spat with the accused who were drinking alcohol outside her shanty in Haryana’s Jind, police said Monday. Police arrested all the accused — three men — and detained a 13-year-old following specific information. A local court Sunday sent the three men — identified as Hameed Khan, alias Amit, (46), Shiva (19), and Biru (18) — to one-day police remand. The minor has been sent to a juvenile correctional facility.
Though the incident took place on the night of April 21, the victim filed a police complaint after three days, leading to the arrest of the accused on April 26. All the accused are the residents of the same locality as the victim woman, who makes ends meet by ragpicker, and the accused are residents of the same colony in the town. As per the police, the four accused were allegedly consuming alcohol near the woman’s shanty to which she objected. A heated argument ensued following which Khan allegedly dragged her to a nearby garbage dump and raped her, they said. The minor, who followed the woman on hearing her screams, was also sexually assaulted by the other accused, police said. With the minor screaming in pain, the accused then smothered her to death and then took turns raping the woman, they said. The woman’s husband was not at home when the incident occurred. On April 22 morning, some locals and the family found the child’s body. “They noticed some injury marks on her neck apart from some bloodstains. However, considering it a natural death, the family buried the body,” Jind’s ASP Sonakshi Singh said. The woman, who regained consciousness two days later, informed the family and filed a police complaint. On April 24, the police exhumed the girl’s body and sent it to the BPS Government Medical College for Women in Sonipat district for postmortem. “The autopsy report stated that the five-year-old had been gangraped before being strangulated to death. A medical examination of the mother also confirmed gangrape,” the police officer said.