Jharkhand: 15-year-old minor girl commits suicide after panchayat asked rape accused to compensate her with money

Ranchi: In a heart wrenching development reported from Jharkhand’s Santhal region, an administrative division of the state which has been at the center of political strife lately over growing infiltration of Bangladeshi intruders, a 15-year-old minor girl has committed suicide after being raped and threatened subsequently by family members of her rapist on August 18.

The incident has occurred in the bordering district of Sahibganj where the girl was found hanging inside her room hours after a local village body (Panchayat) met to discuss about the rape incident and bizarrely imposed a fine of Rs 1.35 lakhs on the main accused Sahid Anwar, a resident of the same village as a compensation for committing the heinous crime with the victim girl.

Reports suggest that the minor girl was threatened and raped on August 15 by the accused Sahid Anwar who is a neighbor of the victim girl. Further a day after the incident, the family members of the accused allegedly barged into the house of the victim and assaulted her and her mother who after learning about the incident was mulling over filing a complaint against the accused.

Its been learned that over a dozen members of Sahid’s family also threatened the victim mother with dire consequences against approaching the police into the matter. The hapless mother and the victim then approached the villagers following which a Panchayat was called on August 18th evening where it was pronounced that the accused family will pay a compensation money (1.35 lakhs) to the victim.

When the victim family strongly refused to accept the compensation amount, the family members of the accused once again resorted to threatening the victim’s family with dire consequences. Offended by the sequence of events and her helplessness the minor girl committed suicide on the night of August 18.

Following the girl committed suicide a case has been registered by the police at Radha Nagar police station on the basis of the statement of the deceased mother and efforts are being made to trace the accused and his family members who have been absconding since the demise of the victim.

Former Chief Minister lashes out at deteriorating state of law and order

Meanwhile the fateful incident of rape and suicide of the minor girl has prompted sharp reactions from the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president of the state, Babu Lal Marandi who has slammed the state government for inaction against such accused terming it as an outcome of appeasement policy of Chief Minister Hemant Soren led government.

Posting a paper cutting of the incident on social media platform X, Marandi who had been at the helm of affairs of the state as a Chief Minister for over 2 years said that another daughter of Santhal Pargana became a victim of rape, a monster named Sahid Anwar raped a 15-year-old minor girl of Sahibganj who committed suicide.

He further said that the soul-stirring memories of cruelty done to Dumka’s daughter Ankita and Rubika Pahariya, daughter of Sahibganj are still fresh in the minds of people and the current heart-rending incident has once again opened those wounds.

Highlighting a pattern about these incidents Marandi further quoted “that people like Dildar Ansari, Md. Shahrukh, Sahid Anwar from a particular community are making the poor tribal girls victim of their lust. Sometimes the girls are being burnt alive by pouring petrol and sometimes they are being cut into pieces and thrown away”.

The BJP stalwart further alleged that the incumbent government led by Hemant Soren have been saving the barbaric criminals and hesitant to take action against them fearing the loss of Muslim votes. He also pointed out about the way all the family members of the accused have absconded in the current case citing that the entire family cannot abscond together without the connivance of the police administration and the government.

Significantly, hours after his tweet, Marandi in a separate post highlighted a similar incident from Ranchi district where a minor tribal girl was raped by the accused Meemshad Ansari. The incident has taken place under the Chanho police station limits on Tuesday, August 20. Highlighting about the incident the BJP president wrote “Din Badla Lekin Halat Nahi Badle” (Day changed but not the situation).

Notably, the opposition leaders of the state have been long accusing the incumbent state government for going soft on the Bangladeshi intruders and the surge in crime against women in the state. However the accusation linked to infiltration of Bangladeshi infiltrators labelled by the opposition leaders have been categorically denied by the leaders of the ruling alliance time and again.

Of late, the issue of infiltration of the Bangladeshi intruders in Santhal and subsequent change in demography has been also at the forefront of political strife between the leaders of opposition and ruling coalition in both inside and out of the assembly in the poll bound state where assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the later part of the year.