The Hailakandi district of Assam is filled to overflowing with horror after the rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. Assam Police have taken up the case and arrested three teenagers– a seventeen-year-old boy and two others, in connection with the horrific crime. The young girl was said to have been acquainted with one of the accused persons and conversations between them are being investigated for the events leading up to the incident.
The tragic incident occurred late Saturday night in Aloichora, which is under the jurisdiction of the Katlicherra police station. The family of the victim said they were at a community feast at a relative’s house close by. The teenager had left the gathering at half-past ten after a minor dispute with a cousin, his mother said. When family members arrived at the house off National Highway 6 about an hour later they discovered the body lying on the floor with severe, unrecognisable injuries.
The brutality of the assault has shocked the region. Family members and senior police officials say the attackers tortured the victim by using household objects to inflict severe trauma and mutilate the body. Local law enforcement agencies set up a Special Investigation Team to investigate every part of the case. Senior Superintendent of Police Amitabh Sinha said that authorities formally asked the judiciary to try the seventeen-year-old accused as an adult given the heinous nature of the offence.
Samir Darpan Baruah, another Superintendent of Police, confirmed that the three suspects have been booked under strict legal provisions. The initial charges involve 65(1) for rape of a minor under sixteen and 103(1) for murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The investigation has identified numerous mobile phones and is looking at others, and further suspects could be involved as the investigation continues.
The gruesome incident has triggered widespread anger, and there are protests in Hailakandi and other parts of Assam’s Barak Valley. The angry local people protested against National Highway 6 -- the main route between Assam and Mizoram -- and demanded capital punishment against all the culprits. Police management has repeatedly urged the public and social media users to be careful and to not disclose the sensitive details of the investigation because it would only damage the integrity of the judiciary and the privacy of the grieving family.
