Yet another incident of rape and murder of a minor has been reported from the Meerut Zone. An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered in a village of Khurja area, District Bulandshahr.

The dead body of the girl was recovered on the evening of August 4 from a sugarcane field of a village in Khurja. Police have arrested accused Ashok Kumar (22 ) while the dead body of the deceased girl has been sent for postmortem.

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Suresh Kumar, circle officer of Khurja, District Bulandshahar said that they are waiting for the postmortem report. A case of murder has been lodged against Ashok Kumar and charges of rape would be added only after it is confirmed in the postmortem report, he added.

The deceased had come to the village of her mother in Khurja with both per parents to celebrate the festival of Rakshabandhan on Monday. While her parents went to meet some relatives they left the girl with her mama’s (maternal uncle) family.

Ashok, a neighbour, called the girl and offered to get her some fruits. Unaware of his intentions, the girl went with him. The family members who were busy in celebrating Rakshabandhan did not notice her absence. By the time they realised that she is nowhere in the house, it was too late!

On Tuesday evening when her parents returned from the relatives’ house and inquired about their daughter, they were shocked to know that she had gone missing.

Uncle’s family told the parents about the entire incident and the matter was reported at Khurja Police Station, raising the needle of suspicion towards Ashok.

Taking swift action, police arrested Ashok who initially tried to mislead them but eventually broke down. In his statement, Ashok said that he attempted to rape her and then killed her out of fear of being identified. After killing the girl, he dumped the dead body in a sugarcane field of the village. Police recovered the body on the basis of his statement and sent it for postmortem.

A similar incident was reported on 30 July from Mansoorpur Village of District Muzzaffarnagar where a nine-year-old Dalit girl was raped and murdered by her neighbour Sumit Kumar (21). Sumit was later arrested by the police and sent to jail.

Such incidents are a frequent phenomenon here, said Atul Sharma, director of NGO Sankalp. She said that young girls, even minors are not safe. Such cases are reported more in the rural areas as a result of which parents in villages want to have early marriages of their daughters, she added. Atul Sharma has been vociferously raising this issue for a long time.