On Thursday night, a team of police and Local Crime Branch (LCB) reportedly nabbed a 19-year-old boy named Ismaeel Lashkar for raping a four-year-old girl in Yashoda Dham locality of Bhachau in the Kutch district of Gujarat. The incident took place 1.5 months ago during which the youth, who happened to the neighbour of the victim, committed the heinous act.
The victim’s parents are migrants from the State of West Bengal and have been living in the area for 2 years. Lashkar also hailed from West Bengal and worked in a nearby factory. He lived alone and was addicted to watching pornographic content. Cops have informed that the Coronavirus test results of the accused are awaited and that he will be arrested if he is tested negative.
On the fateful day of May 20, the girl was abducted by the accused while she was playing outside her hut in the colony. He forcefully took her to an adjoining bush and raped her. An officer from the Kutch (East) police station informed that about 70 migrant families lived in the Yashoda Dham locality and that they had suspected the accused to be one among them. Interestingly, the perpetrator behaved normally in public and took precautions to not raise suspicion in people’s minds.
Investigation into the Case
The victim was initially terrified and reluctant to confide about her perpetrator to a stranger. However, she eventually revealed the name of Lashkar after a female assistant sub-inspector was able to win her confidence. The victim also underwent psychological counselling sessions through an interpreter. As per reports, the accused has been booked under Sections 4 and 5 of the POSCO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, besides Sections 363 (abduction) and 376 – 3A,3B (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Cops had seized the mobile phone of the accused and found explicit content in it. Lashkar has revealed that he was motivated to commit the heinous crime after watching pornographic material. Inspector (Gandhidham Crime Branch) MS Rana informed that the accused used to frequently visit the area and that they had received a tip-off about his involvement in the crime.
