Minor girl raped, tortured by neighbor

A minor girl, student of class V was brutally raped and tortured by her neighbor at Niranjanpur village of Najirpur gram panchayat under Manikchak police station approximately 40 km from here. As the accused Pranab Mandal had threatened the rape-victim and her family with dire consequences, they kept mum about the incident.
However, failing to bear the physical and mental agony the girl and her parents revealed the matter to their neighbours today and with their help lodged a written complaint with police. The accused, however, could not be arrested yet.
It is learnt from police sources that Mandal, the culprit enticed the 10-year-old girl by offering her bunch of litchis and took her to a deserted litchi orchard. The girl was thrown into a pit and then raped by Mandal. The accused even severely assaulted the girl and broke her right-hand. When the culprit went away, the girl dragged herself back to her house and told the incident to her parents.
“But we could not take any action as Pranab Mandal and his henchmen were constantly threatening us. They warned us that my daughter would be killed if we lodge a police complaint. But we could not resist ourselves eventually and with the help of the neighbours lodged a police complaint against Mandal,” said the girl’s father.
Leaders of all political parties demanded exemplary punishment of the accused.
Syad Waqar Raza, the superintendent of police, said, “The accused absconded after the incident. We would arrest him soon. An inquiry has been started into the complaint lodged by the girl’s family.” (EOI)