Jharkhand shocker: 5 tribal girls returning from wedding gangraped, 18 minor boys arreste

Police have arrested 18 minor boys in connection with the alleged gangrape of five minor tribal girls in Jharkhand’s Khunti, reports said.

Police said that the accused boys above 16 would be tried as adults, news agency ANI reported.

“18 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,” the news agency quoted DGP Jharkhand, Anurag Gupta.

The DGP said boys above 16 would be tried as adults “so that in our society, boys wouldn’t do such dirty acts.”

Earlier, police officials had confirmed to news agency PTI that the accused minors, aged between 12-17, had been sent to a juvenile home.

On Monday, the girls who were allegedly gangraped, underwent medical examinations as well.

The incident

The incident took place on Friday, late at night, when the five girls, out of which three were between the ages of 12-16, were raped by the boys as per the police complaint filed by family members. The girls were coming back home after attending a wedding ceremony in Rania.

Khunti SP Aman Kumar said, “The incident came to the fore on Sunday after the complaint was filed at Rania police station.” After a complaint was lodged, the police set up a team and promptly arrested the 18 minors.

Based on the statement of the girls, the police registered a case against the accused boys 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 BNS as well as sections 4 (penetrative sexual assault) and 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the POCSO Act, reported The Times of India.