The woman allegedly got her 14-year-old son and three other neighbours from Uri, Kashmir, to sexually assault the child.
New Delhi: She was found in a forest in North Kashmir’s Boniyar, her eyes gouged and acid poured over her body. Someone had hit her on the head with an axe. Preliminary forensic analysis confirmed she was gang-raped.
She was nine years old.
Police in Kashmir have arrested a local woman for allegedly getting her stepdaughter gang-raped and then killing her, all because she thought her husband loved the child more than her children.
Also read: How far will man fall? Rape of children is on the rise, not just in Kathua and Unnao
Her other alleged crime is that she got her 14-year-old son to rape the child along with three boys, including another minor, from the neighbourhood. The two adults have been identified as Kaiser Ahmed, 19, and Naseer Ahmed Khan, 28.
Jealousy and rage
The victim was the daughter of her husband’s second wife, a native of Jharkhand. The stepmother has reportedly told police that she was jealous of the extra attention her husband allegedly gave this other family.
The girl went missing from her home in Trikanjan, Boniyar on the second day of Eid ul Adha, 22 August. She was reported missing two days later, 24 August, by her father, who feared she had been abducted.
Police said, on the day she went missing, the stepmother took the child to the forest near their house on the pretext of grazing cattle. There, they added, the stepmother “signaled” her son and the other boys to rape her.
“The girl was gang-raped by the accused in the presence and at the instance of her stepmother,” said police in a statement.
“Then she strangulated the girl and her son hit her on the head with an axe, killing her on the spot,” police added.
“After that, the other minor accused went home and brought acid in a plastic bottle. Kaiser gouged out her eyes with a sharp knife and then acid was poured on her abdomen and private parts,” police said.
Also read: Death of CBI witness in Unnao rape-custody death case sparks controversy
Finally, the body was dumped in the bushes.
“The body of the girl was found in a decomposed form in forests a kilometre away from her home on 2 September,” Baramulla senior superintendent of police Imtiyaz Hussain told The Print.
“The eyes of the girl could not be located. They appear to have been taken away by animals or birds,” he added.
The stepmother is said to have confessed to the crime. She has reportedly claimed that her husband spent most of his time with his second wife and that the victim was the dearest of all his children to him.
“She wanted to teach them a lesson,” said SSP Hussain.
“All of them have confessed the crime. Everybody has corroborated each other’s story,” Hussain added.
A shocked community
The crime, which comes just months after a similar attack on a seven-year-old in Jammu’s Kathua, has left local residents in shock.
When the crime was first discovered, locals organised a shutdown to register their protest. After the case was cracked, overwhelmed residents garlanded Hussain and his team.
“In the last 20 years of my career, I have never seen a grave crime like this in Kashmir,” said Hussain.
“It is a shameful, shocking and heart-wrenching incident,” he added.
Jammu & Kashmir Director General of Police S.P. Vaid congratulated the team on Twitter.
“A bone chilling story of gang rape and murder of a 9 year old girl in #Uri… @JmuKmrPolice has solved the case and arrested all the accused,” he tweeted.
The three adult accused have been arrested, and will be produced before a judicial magistrate Wednesday. The two minors have been detained too.
Police have recovered the weapons used in the crime, including the axe and the knife. “We will soon file a chargesheet,” Hussain said.