In a shameful incident, a six-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by two minor brothers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district. The girl, a student of Class 1, had gone missing on Tuesday afternoon, said police on Thursday.
The accused brothers, aged 15 and 12 years, are Dalits and school dropouts. They have confessed to having sexually assaulted the minor girl. Their parents are labourers, they are currently working as rag pickers.
According to reports, the victim was last seen playing near the house of the accused. When the minor did not return home, her family tried to search for her and later approached the police, who launched a massive manhunt.
Kheri Senior Superintendent of Police, Poonam, told IANS that the search operation was carried on throughout the night.
The minor girl's body was found on Wednesday after the mother of the accused brothers confessed to the police. The mother told police that she had helped her sons dump the body of the victim when she found they had strangled her to death.
"The victim's body was recovered some 200 metres from the accused's house. The accused told us they had lured the girl into their house with candy," Station House Officer Phoolbehad Police Station, Shyam Narain Singh told IANS.
Police have taken the brothers and their mother into custody and have registered an FIR against all three, under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
(With IANS inputs)
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