Jharkhand: 4-year-old raped, murdered; villagers allege witchcraft

Singhbhum: A four-year-old girl, who went missing on December 15, was found dead near her village in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum on Thursday with her eyes gouged out and hands chopped off.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the girl had been brutally raped and murdered and villagers claim that it was the handicraft of a ‘sorcerer’.

But the police said an organ trafficking group could be involved, but they are waiting for the girl’s autopsy to confirm if any of her organs are missing. They also said that stray dogs could have scraped her eyes out.

However, they are not ruling out other motives and suspect that her family members or people who are close to her could be involved.

“Someone close and known to the victim appeared to be behind the act because had there been outsiders or a racket been involved they would not have dumped the body in the village. But we are probing every lead and not ruling out any angle”, the Jamshedpur rural superintendent of police, Shailendra Barnwal said.

The girl’s parents had lodged a complaint four days after the girl went missing. The police allegedly refused to search for her when her parents approached them initially.

The angry villagers assaulted the assistant sub-inspector before the police team rescued him and promised them that an action will be taken.

Several women from the villagers said that a sorcerer, who was spotted at an adjacent hillock from the nearby village, could be involved.

Villagers alleged that two young men who were seen on a motorcycle drugged the girl when she was playing outside her house and committed the crime. 

The girl’s father, however, has not named any suspect so far.

This is the second such crime in Jharkhand in a week, the first one being the rape of a 19-year-old girl who was burnt to death in Booty Basti.