Rape and killing of minor girl: Grandparents arrested, CM assures justice

Two days after the heinous murder and rape of a minor girl in Sonamura came to light, Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha on Sunday asserted that the state administration was committed to identifying and punishing the culprits involved in the incident.

The Chief Minister’s statement came in the wake of Higher Education Minister Kishor Barman’s visit to the village of the victim.

“I have been informed in detail about the incident of the unnatural death of a Class 10 girl student in Chandanmura village under Sonamura subdivision. Today, the local MLA and Higher Education Minister Kishor Barman spoke with the residents of the area,” the Chief Minister wrote in a social media post.

Describing the incident as extremely “tragic” and “painful,” the Chief Minister asserted that the administration was committed to punishing the real culprits.

“The incident is extremely tragic and painful. Based on the preliminary investigation, the police have already arrested two persons. The administration is firmly committed to identifying the culprits through a fair and impartial investigation and ensuring the strictest punishment for those responsible, and work in that direction is underway,” Dr. Saha wrote.

Earlier, a 65-year-old man was arrested and sent to judicial custody on Saturday for the alleged sexual assault and murder of his 16-year-old granddaughter in Chandanmura village, police said.

The accused, identified as Pran Ballabh Das, has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The incident came to light after the victim’s father, who works in Chennai, returned to Tripura on Thursday and filed a formal police complaint against his father on Friday.

According to the complaint, the teenager, a Class 10 student, was repeatedly subjected to sexual assault by the accused. The father alleged that the girl was smothered to death with a pillow on Wednesday (April 29) in an obvious attempt to hide the truth. Later, the mortal remains were hung from a ceiling to simulate a suicide, the complaint added.

“Soon after receipt of the complaint, we registered a case and arrested the accused. He was produced before the Sonamura court on Saturday and subsequently remanded to judicial custody. The court has also granted permission for further interrogation in jail,” Sonamura Police Station Officer-in-Charge Tapas Das said.

According to available information, the deceased had lost her mother years ago and was living with her paternal grandparents as her father worked out of state.

Police said that an audio recording was retrieved from her phone in which she could be heard narrating her ordeal to a friend and expressing fear over the lack of support from her grandmother, Jyotsna Rani Das.

Local villagers alleged that the crime scene was tampered with before police arrival. Eyewitness accounts suggested that the mortal remains  were brought down and moved to Melaghar Hospital by a relative of the victim’s stepmother without informing the neighbors or the police.

On Sunday, Higher Education Minister Kishore Barman, who is also the local MLA from Nalchar, met the family members of the deceased and spoke to the local villagers. He sought a fair probe and stringent punishment for those found guilty, according to people present during the visit.

A palpable sense of anger was noticed among the local villagers during the minister’s interaction. An attempt was also made to vandalise the house of the accused person but due to police intervention, the kin of the accused could be moved to safe custody.

Police said the girl was found hanging inside her house earlier this week. 

On Sunday, the police arrested Jyotsna Rani Das, the wife of the accused person and grandmother of the deceased. She was shifted to hospital on Saturday after local villagers rounded up her house.