Nine days after a nine-year-old girl went missing in Andhra Pradesh’s Nandyala district, police officials have apprehended three Children in Conflict with Law (CCL) and arrested two adults on charges of gang rape and murder.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, July 16, Adhiraj Singh Rana who replaced K Raghuveera Reddy Nandyala Superintendent of Police (SP) three days ago, said that the child’s body is yet to be traced and search is still ongoing. “The three boys raped the child near a temple in Muchimarri and then left her body near the canal. The father and uncle of one of the minors went back to the canal and drowned the child’s body in the Krishna river,” SP Rana said.
Raghuveera Reddy told the media that in the course of the investigation, they learnt that the three minors regularly watched pornography. He also added that the adults involved in the case have a history of criminal records.
The accused will be produced before the magistrate court and placed in judicial custody. A case has been registered under clause 70/2 (gang rape of a woman under 18 years of age), 103 (1) murder on the ground of race, caste, or community, 238 (a) (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) read with Sections 5 and 6, dealing with aggravated penetrative sexual assault of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Only a medical examination can confirm rape, and the current proceedings are based on the custodial confession of the accused.
Police officials have been working with teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to locate the body. Drone cameras and boats are also being utilised in the search operation.