A Class 4 girl was allegedly raped and killed in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district. She was returning to her home from tuition when she was allegedly kidnapped on Friday and her body was found near a canal on Saturday.
Angry villagers gathered around the local police station with brooms, sticks and bamboo and also gheraoed Sub-Divisional Police Officer Atish Biswas. Villagers vandalised the police outpost and set it on fire, The Indian Express reported. The police resorted to a baton charge to disperse the crowd.
One person has been arrested, a senior police officer was quoted as saying in the report. "It remains to be seen if anyone else is involved. Efforts are underway to normalise the situation in the area. That is our priority," a senior police official said.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya alleged the angry villagers attacked the police station because the police "refused" to file a complaint.
BJP Attacks Mamata Govt
The BJP has corned the ruling Mamata Banerjee government over the incident. "How many more innocent lives will be lost under Mamata Banerjee's failure to protect our daughters? This blood is on her hands," the state unit of the party said in a post on X.
Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar said, "A minor student of class IV was brutally raped and brutally murdered on her way back from tuition in Kripakhali area of Kultali police station. Later, the villagers recovered the frozen body of the little girl from the river bed. My question to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who failed to protect women, there is no relief for the girls of Bengal even at the beginning of Devi Paksha!"
"Those who raped a nine-year-old girl…do they have the right to worship Durga on Ashtami? Where are we heading as a society?” CPIM leader Tanmay Bhattacharjee was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
The incident comes amid an uproar over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at the RG Kar Medical College And Hospital in Kolkata. The incident has led to state-wide protests by resident doctors.