Haryana: Missing Dalit teen raped, tortured, body found near canal

Chandigarh/Kurukshetra: The half-naked, mutilated body of a Dalit girl was found from the banks of a water channel in Haryana's Jind district on Saturday.

Upon medical examination, it was found that the 15-year-old girl was subjected to violence similar to that of Jyoti Singh, the December 2012 Delhi gangrape victim.

The teenager was not only gangraped but a foreign object was inserted into her private parts causing serious internal injuries. Her body was also brutalised by her assailants in various ways.

According to PGIMS Rohtak's forensic department, her body parts were damaged and water was found from her body, suggesting both brutal sexual abuse and drowning.

"In all, her body had 19 injuries — largely on face, head, chest and hands. Her lungs were ruptured, suggesting someone might have sat on her chest," said head of the hospital's forensic department Dr S K Dattarwal, according to a report in the Times of India.

"The girl was subjected to immense brutality. We have asked the police to provide us the scene of the crime report and photographs of the spot for confirmations," the doctor added.

The class ten student was the elder daughter of a tailor living in a village under Jhansa police station in Kurukshetra. She had earlier gone missing with a 20-year-old person from her village and her family had him booked in a case of abduction.

The 20-year-old man is still missing. However, there is no proof yet of his link with the crime.

According to news agency ANI, the victim's distraughted father demanded justice for her daughter. "My daughter was kidnapped and raped, culprits should be punished, we want justice for her. If administration had done its job well, an incident like this would have never happened," he said.

An FIR has been registered under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) as well as four more squads have been constituted under a DSP for the probe.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Sunday, declared that one person has been identified in lieu of the case.

In Kurukshetra, the teen's family refused to accept her body for cremation. They demanded the case be handed over to the CBI, a government job for a member of her family, Rs 50 lakh from the Nirbhaya Fund and two arms licences.

They accepted the body only after Haryana minister KK Bedi assured them of a timebound probe and release of compensation.