Massive protests after Bengal girl, 9, kidnapped on her way home, murdered

A nine-year-old girl was murdered at Joynagar in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on Friday. Her body was found late on Friday. Police have arrested the accused, an 18-year-old youth.

The villagers alleged that police initially refused to lodge a missing person report. A 200 person-strong mob ransacked the Mahishmari police outpost and set it on fire. When cops reached the village to recover the body in the early hours of Saturday, irate villagers heckled them.

A large police contingent, including the Rapid Action Force (RAF), was deployed to bring the situation under control. Police had to resort to lathi charge and fire tear gas to disperse the mob.

“We received information around 9pm on Friday. A case was registered. The accused has been arrested and he has confessed to the crime. When police went to the village around 3.30am on Friday, villagers staged a protest. We have taken each and every step promptly. We are looking into the grievances of the villagers,” Palash Chandra Dhali, superintendent of police of Baruipur police district, told media persons.

People familiar with the matter said that the victim, a student of Class 4, went to attend tuition classes around 2.30pm on Friday. When she didn’t return home till late in the evening, her family members and villagers started searching for her.

“She came to my shop in the local market around 5pm on her way back home from the tuition classes. But when I returned home at night, I was told that she never reached home. We started searching for her. Later her body was found around one kilometre from our home,” the victim’s father told media persons.

Locals alleged that when they went to the Mahishmari police camp and Joynagar police station to lodge a missing report, police didn’t accept it initially.

“While cops at the Mahishmari camp said that we needed to file the missing report at Joynagar police station, there the cops said we should approach the Mahishmari camp,” said the victim’s uncle.

Protests erupted after the body was found in the early hours of Saturday. A mob ransacked the Mahishmari camp and set it on fire. A motorcycle was also set on fire. When a police contingent reached the spot, cops were heckled. Women hit the streets with lathis, brooms and kitchen utensils. Ganesh Chandra Mondal, the TMC legislator from Kultali, was also chased away by the irate villagers.