9-year-old girl raped and murdered in Uttar Pradesh's Etah; accused arrested, charged under POCSO Act

A nine-year-old girl attending a wedding ceremony was raped and murdered by a man in Etah, an incident which comes days after another minor was raped and killed in the western UP town, police said on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_4235515” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The incident took place on Thursday night when the accused forcibly dragged the nine-year-old who was attending the wedding ceremony of her uncle in Keltha locality of Aliganj police station. “The accused raped the girl and then killed her. On the complaint lodged by the family members of the girl, a case has been registered against the accused of committing rape and murder. POCSO Act has also been slapped on the accused,” circle officer, Aliganj, Ajay Bhadauria told PTI. He said the accused identified as Pintu (22) has been arrested. Police said the accused is a father of two children and works as a driver. “At the time of the incident, he was in an inebriated state. Besides Pintu, his brother has been arrested,” additional SP Sanjay Kumar said. On 16 April, a seven-year-old girl attending a wedding ceremony was allegedly raped and strangulated to death by a man hired to set up tents on the occasion. The incident took place near Mandi Samiti gate on the Aliganj road here where the girl had gone with her family to attend a wedding. Sonu Jatav (19), who was given the task of putting up tents for the marriage ceremony lured the girl, raped her and subsequently killed her. The body of the girl was found in an under-construction house in the vicinity of the marriage venue and a rope was found tied around the neck of the girl. Both, the incidents in western Uttar Pradesh come at a time when the Yogi Adityanath government is fighting public anger over the rape of a teenager allegedly by a ruling party MLA in Unnao. In another shocking case, a man was booked for raping his 35-year-old daughter along with two of his friends in Sitapur city in Uttar Pradesh, police said. Besides these, two minor girls were allegedly raped in separate incidents in Siddharth Nagar and Hamirpur districts his week. In Siddharth Nagar, a six-year-old girl was raped by her neighbour when she had gone for a marriage function in a village in Chilhia area, while a 14-year-old girl was raped by three men in a village in Binwar area in Hamirpur district when she went to graze cattle. The girl was held captive for three hours near a tubewell, where she was raped several times.