A 65-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping two minor girls in Assam’s Jorhat district on Thursday, leading to the death of one of them by suicide, police said.
According to the family members of the minors, the two girls went to collect mangoes from the accused’s house when he arrested them, handcuffed them and sexually assaulted them.
The family members claimed: “At first they did not tell us about the incident, and after that one of them died by suicide, and then the other girl revealed the matter and identified the accused.”
The families filed a First Information Report (FIR) at Teok police station on Friday, following which a case was registered against the accused.
The case has been registered under multiple sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012, along with relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act, including abetment to suicide, police said.
The police are awaiting medical examination reports. “We have recorded the statement of one of the victims and she has undergone mandatory medical examination. The body of the other girl has been sent for post-mortem and once we receive both the reports, the situation will become clearer,” Jorhat Senior Police Inspector Super Jyoti Bora said on Saturday.
Bora said the charges were merged based on the allegations mentioned in the FIR, and provisions for grievous sexual assault as well as abetment to suicide were included. He added: “We are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter and cannot reveal specific details at this stage for the sake of the investigation process.”
The people organized a protest on Saturday to demand strict punishment for the accused. Police said he appeared in court on Saturday and was remanded in custody for two days.
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