PATNA: Tension prevails after a teenage
Dalit girl
was beaten to death for plucking a few grams of leaves from the field of an influential farmer in Bihar's Kaimur district barely weeks after another minor girl was allegedly raped, murdered, and then buried in the basement of a house for plucking mehndi leaves at another place in Bihar. The police have registered an
FIR
against four persons, but all are absconding.
Police said the victim girl Sundari Kumari, 14, daughter of Jitendra Ram from Hata village under Chainpur police station, accompanied by her cousin sister had gone to her farmland when she got tempted by the lush green
gram leaves
in the neighbour’s farmland and began plucking them.
In the meantime, the owner of the field Ramadhar Yadav along with his son Gaurav Yadav reached the spot and caught the girl. “After holding the girl, they badly assaulted her with bamboo sticks. Somehow, she reached home tottering and collapsed soon,” Chainpur station house officer Shambhu Kumar told the TOI over phone on Thursday, quoting the victim's family members.
The police official said some of the sticks might have hit her brain as a result of which she collapsed. He said the police have handed over the body to the family members after postmortem for cremations. Her cousin's sister was also assaulted, police said.
“We are conducting raids to nab the accused persons, but they are absconding. We will nab them very soon,” the SHO said, adding the accused persons hail from Nandana village, some 1 km from the victim's village. The victim girl studied in class eight at the local middle school.
A five-member team of CPI-ML headed by Kaimur district secretary Vijay Yadav visited the victim’s family on Thursday and inquired about the incident. After meeting the family members, they demanded immediate arrest of the accused persons and compensation of Rs20 lakh to the victim’s family.
“The incident is very barbaric. The accused persons rained lathi blows on her for a smaller crime. They must be arrested soon, or we will stage angry protests on Friday,” CPI-ML’s office secretary in Bhabua, Mordhwaj Singh said over phone.
Killings for petty crime are common in the state. In July this year, a minor girl was allegedly raped, killed and buried in the basement of the house by the accused person in Begusarai district for plucking mehndi leaves for Shrawan festival.
Last month, a 50-year-old man was killed allegedly for stealing a cauliflower in East Champaran district while in April this year, a 20-year-old youth was shot dead for plucking mangoes from the orchard of a local villager in Buxur. Reports said the attackers pumped bullets into his chest as he died.
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