19 October,2020 04:47 PM IST | Ahmedabad | mid-day online correspondent
Picture for representational purpose
A 12-year-old differently-abled girl was allegedly raped and decapitated in Dantiwada taluka of Banaskantha district in Gujarat.
Her body was found on Saturday morning, hours after she went missing.
As per a report in Ahmedabad Mirror, police believe the crime was executed by her 24-year-old cousin. He has been detained for questioning. The girl, who had partial hearing and speech impairment, belonged to the OBC community and lived in Deesa.
According to police, she had gone missing from her house on Friday night (October 16). Her decapitated body was found the next morning near a village in Dantiwada. CCTV footage of the route from Deesa to Dantiwada showed that the girl was riding pillion with a youth on a bike.
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The youth, identified as her cousin, was detained on Saturday on the basis of this evidence. Police also reportedly found a glass with his bloody fingerprints.
Banaskantha SP Tarun Kumar Duggal said, "The mother of the accused is the sister of the victim's father. The two families had regular fights regarding this boy and his character. The fact that he was carrying a weapon shows intention for murder."
Till the last reports came in, an FIR was being filed against the accused for murdering the girl and then throwing her body in the hilly region near Moti Bhakhar village of Dantiwada. The police will also be adding sections of the IPC and POCSO related to rape, said deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Kushal Oza.
Oza said, "Prima facie, it looks like the murder was perpetrated so that the accused wouldn't be identified. Currently, while there is suspicion of rape, we can say that conclusively only after we get the medical reports from the post mortem."
Police officials also said that the girl had speech and hearing impairment since a young age, but was being trained to speak. She had just begun saying some words after treatment and training when the incident took place. Dr Rajul Desai, member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) who had just reached Gujarat on Friday, said she had spoken to police officials regarding expediting the case and getting to the root cause of the crime.
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