Kathua re-run in Gujarat: 11-year-old Surat girl held captive, tortured and raped repeatedly

The case details are a chilling reminder of Kathua gang rape case

SURAT: In a gruesome reminder of the Kathua rape case, the mutilated body of 11-year-old girl recovered from Gujarat's Surat Bhestan locality was likely held captive, tortured and raped over a period of time, said the police on Sunday. The case has now been transferred to the Crime Branch.

The child's body was recovered on Friday, April 6, by the side of a highway. Postmortem reports have now confirmed sexually assault. The girl was murdered on April 5, said the police.

It is now being believed that the girl, probably belonging to Odiya or Bengali community, was killed and the body dumped outside Surat, said city Police Commissioner Satish Sharma.

Appealing people for help, Sharma added that over 1200 posters pasted across Surat and trains to identify the girl.

“In order to identify the girl, the victims details were matched details of 8000 lost children,” he added.

The post-mortem examination of the girl revealed a case of "strangulation and smothering" with 86 signs of minor injuries, including sexual assault, he said. Some of the injuries were old.

The case details are a chilling reminder of Kathua gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, which has rocked the entire country.

The girl, belonging to a nomadic tribe, was sedated time and again before being raped, brutually tortured and killed. She was abducted on January 10 and was later strangled to death on January 14. The body of the girl was recovered from Rassana forest on January 17 - nearly a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.