Ranchi
In a very disturbing incident, three minor tribal girls were gangraped and two others molested by 18 minor boys — aged between 12 years and 17 years — in Rania block of Khunti district, neighbouring State capital Ranchi.
The incident occurred on Friday night and the police came to know about it on Sunday after the girls’ parents filed a complaint. The accused and the victims were all returning after attending the same marriage-related ceremony in a village.
“Eighteen boys have been arrested. All the boys are minors, all the rape survivor girls, in this case, they are being provided all the government facilities. Among the 18 boys arrested, those who are above 16, will be tried as adults so that in our society, boys wouldn’t do such dirty acts,” Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta told a news agency.
“Three tribal girls, aged between 13 years and 18 years, have been gang-raped. Looking at the seriousness of the matter, the investigation has been intensified. All the 18 accused minors have been apprehended and are being questioned in the case,” said Khunti SP Aman Kumar adding all boys underwent the medical test on Monday. The girls who were allegedly gangraped also underwent medical examinations.
In her statement to the police, one of the victims shared she managed to escape after biting off the hand of one of the boys who had caught her. She then ran to her village and informed the villagers who accompanied her to the spot but by when the accused had fled.
The parents then approached the local elected representatives after which they filed a police complaint on Sunday.
Based on the statement of the girls, police have registered a case under sections 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 127 (2) (wrongful confinement), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 109 (1) (attempt to murder) and 70 (2) (gang rape of women aged below 18 years) of the Bharitya Nyay Sanhita and sections 4 (penetrative sexual assault) and 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.
On June 19, 2018, five women were gangraped in Kochnag. In May 2019, a court sentenced a priest, Alphonse Aind, for disrobing and kidnapping the rape survivors, and the main perpetrators of the crime — Junas Munda, Ayub Purti and Baji Samad, and two abettors, John Jonas and Balram Samad, to life imprisonment.
