Four minor tribal girls in Jharkhand were allegedly abducted from their hostel and then gangraped by about 20 armed men, spreading shock and panic across the state and raising the pressure on the newly-formed government for tough action against crimes against tribals and women.
The police said four girls of the primitive Paharia tribe, aged between 12 and 14, were forcibly picked up from their hostel in Ladba village in the eastern Pakur district and then gangraped at a nearby site on Sunday night. The men, all armed with pistols and knives, raided the girls’ hostel and carried away the four girls, who were released after each of the men allegedly gangraped them. The perpetrators then fled and were yet to be traced by the police.
“An FIR has been lodged and intensified efforts are on to identify and arrest all the culprits. Arrangements have been made for a medical examination of the four girls, whose conditions are fine,” said Pakur SP Y.S. Ramesh.
The four girls were allegedly gangraped at a site some 500 metres from the hostel at Labda village under Littipara police station, he said.
Eleven local men were named as accused in the FIR that had 14 others as unnamed accused. No arrests were made till late on Monday night while the police raided several locations across the district and beyond.
After learning of the incident, villagers were up in arms and planned agitation against the district administration. They calmed down after the SP held a meeting with them and assured that the culprits will be arrested soon and prosecuted as per law.
The incident, coming just two days after tribal politician Hemant Soren of the JMM became Jharkhand’s new CM, led to a spurt in calls to the state’s JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government to take stringent steps to protect the vulnerable tribal communities and contain the high crime graph in the state.
The ruling JMM was already under attack as one of its leaders had celebrated Mr Soren’s swearing-in on Saturday by firing in the air during a procession on a crowded road in Dhanbad. The leader was identified as JMM central committee member Debu Mahto.