Brutal gang rape of seven-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur reminds ‘Nirbhaya’: protests rising

Mandsaur, June 30: The brutal rape of a seven-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur has once again reminded the whole country of the 2012 ‘Nirbhaya case’ in Delhi where a nursing student was sexually assaulted by six people onboard a private bus.

 

Notably, a seven-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur was waiting for her father to pick her up from school, was abducted. The accused later gang-raped her brutally, slit her throat and then taking her to be dead, dumped her body at a vacant plot.

Later she was immediately shifted to the MY Hospital where her treatment is on. Doctors in MY Hospital giving the detailed condition of a girl said there were several bite marks on her body, her nose was badly injured and rectum was ruptured, indicating that an object had been inserted into her privates. They had to cut some nerves to perform three surgeries to save the girl and her condition is stable now, they added.

Taking an immediate cognizance in the case, Mandsaur police acted swiftly and arrested two accused named as Aasif and Irfan on the basis of CCTV footage. Irfan, 20, a prime accused was arrested on Thursday while Aasif, 24, was nabbed by police on Friday. The two accused are residents of Madarpura locality and the Kotwali Police have registered a case under of rape, abduction and under the POCSO Act.

Following the arrest, the Muslim community led by the local Imam of Madarpura locality marched to the collectorate to protest the sexual assault and said that the accused have no religion and demanded they be hanged. On the other side, Mandsaur District Bar Association has decided not to defend any of the accused.

However, after the incident came into the limelight massive protests erupted in eight cities of Madhya Pradesh as the demonstrators took to the street demanding for the death penalty of accused. They also forced shutdown of markets, schools and colleges.

Backing the death sentence in a series of a tweet, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said rapists were a “burden on the earth” and do not deserve to live. The CM also assured that the case would be handed over to a fast-track court. “If required, we will approach the high court and the Supreme Court,” he added.

On Saturday, a team of National Commission for Protection of Children’s Rights will visit Indore and summon the police officers involved in the probe, besides meeting the girl and her family.