Surat rape case: Minor girl's body found in Bhestan; post-mortem reveals victim was raped, tortured for 8 days

Even as the country reels from the brutality of the two rapes in Unnao and Kathua, another incident has been reported from Gujarat’s Surat where a minor girl was raped, killed and left in a cricket field near the city’s Bhestan area. The post-mortem of the body revealed that the girl was raped and tortured for at least eight days before being strangled to death, according to The Free Press Journal. It appeared that most injuries were caused by a wooden weapon. The girl has not been identified yet. The police are checking the list of missing persons to identify the girl. The identities of those who committed the crime are unknown as well. [caption id=“attachment_3469770” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] “At the moment, we do not know the identity of the victim. We have searched the database of missing children from the area as well as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. I have handed over the probe to city crime branch,” Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma told News Cart, which is tracking the story for Firstpost. The police did a house to house survey in 1.5 kilometres around the area where the body was found to see if there was any child missing but not reported. Data of about 8,000 children missing from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra was also searched. Ganesh Govekar, forensic head, Civil Hospital, told ANI, “The girl’s body had 86 injury marks including on her private parts. Samples have been taken for forensic test to ascertain whether she was drugged or not.” Police inspector BK Jhala said, “Even after eight days, the parents of the girl are yet to be identified. The police also believe that she was murdered somewhere else and the dead body has been thrown here. The victim’s picture has been sent to the state police control room for identification process,” said the ANI report. He further added that a reward of Rs 20,000 has been announced for anyone providing information about the girl or her family. Meanwhile, Unnao rape case accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was sent to seven-day CBI custody by a special CBI court on Saturday, while the medical examination of the 17-year-old victim was conducted at a hospital in Unnao earlier that day. Sengar, a lawmaker from Unnao’s Bangarmau, however, continued to claim that he was innocent and told media persons before he was presented before the court that he had full faith in God and the judiciary. Accused of raping a 17-year-old and conspiring to kill her father, who died of injuries he sustained during police custody allegedly by Sengar’s brother and some aides, was arrested by the CBI on Friday after a day-long interrogation. He was also confronted with some facts by the agency. In the Kathua rape case, BJP on Saturday accepted the resignation of two of its ministers from the Jammu and Kashmir coalition government but said their unwise move to go and pacify people rallying for suspects of rape and murder of a minor was “mistaken for trying to shield the accused”. The two ministers — Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga — had attracted widespread anger and criticism for attending a meeting of the Hindu Ekta Manch, a group formed to support the accused, which demanded a CBI probe into the case. The meeting in Hiranagar area of Kathua district was called in support of the accused in the brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old whose body was recovered from a forested area near her home, days after she went missing on 10 January. According to police charges, the minor from the nomad Bakerwal community was kidnapped on 10 January. She was taken to a temple in Rasana village in Kathua district. Her attackers, which included temple official and policemen who drugged and gang-raped her over days before finally killing her and dumping her body in a forest nearby, seven days later. The girl was attacked to scare away the nomadic Muslim community out of the village. With inputs from agencies