The string of shocking incidents of rape of minors in UP doesn’t seem to end any time soon. In yet another shocking rape case reported from Uttar Pradesh, an 11-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Unnao district on June 21.
It has been initially learnt that the girl was sleeping outside her house and when her father woke up in the middle of the night in search of her, she was found to be missing.
“Initially, I thought that she might have gone to nearby fields to go to the toilet. However, when she did not return for long, I along with my family and neighbours launched a search and found my daughter’s body lying in an orchard. Her head was badly crushed with bricks,” he told IANS.
The girl’s naked body carried injury marks all around her neck and private parts and her body was discovered later.
A ‘rape and murder case’ under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) has been registered and her body has been sent for post-mortem examination.
While as many as 89,423 crimes against children under Indian Penal Code, local and special laws were reported across the country in 2014, the shocking figures jumped to 94,172 in 2015 and then reached 1,06,958 in 2016.
Shocking report also reveals that nearly 1,700 children were murdered in 2016, while the total number of infanticide and foeticide remained at 93 and 144, respectively. More than 800 children were abandoned.
Rapists should be punished publicly. They escape immediate punishment because of lack of evidence and slow judicial system in the country.
When rape case is proved, punishment should be ‘public lashing’ followed by ‘death by hanging’ to deter rape.