BHOPAL: A 12-year-old schoolgirl was abducted from a Bhopal street on Wednesday evening, drugged, stuffed into a sack and tortured with electric shocks by two men who intended to sell her off so that they could repay some debts.
She was rescued, thanks to a woman who had heard a single shriek from a kidnappers' house and alerted police. When a rescue team found her in the wee hours of Thursday, she was covered in bruises and injuries from the beating and dazed by electric shocks. A police officer said the kidnappers had changed their plan and intended to murder her. She was saved in the nick of time.
When TOI spoke with the girl's father, he was still in shock but grateful to the police for the nightlong investigation. "My daughter was saved because police swung into action immediately," he said.
Both the accused, one of whom lives in the same neighbourhood, have been arrested and have confessed to the crime, said police. The child is in hospital. The house of the prime accused was demolished by a joint team of police and administration on Thursday afternoon, IG (Bhopal rural) Irshad Wali said.
The incident, which will send shivers down the spine of every parent, is all the more alarming because it took place in a residential area of Bhopal and when the girl was going about a normal day.
Berasia SHO Girish Tripathi said that the survivor, a student of class 8, had stepped out of her home to look for her mother who had gone to a neighbour's house to fetch some clothes she had given to be stitched. As she was passing by the prime accused's house, he yanked her in and clamped a hand on her mouth to stop her from shouting.
She says he overpowered her and injected her with a sedative after which she fell unconscious. Piecing together the chain of events, police said that the prime accused, a 24-year-old who claims to be a yoga instructor, called his accomplice, who runs a tea stall. He told the chaiwallah to come on his motorcycle and bring along a sack.
The duo tied the unconscious girl's hands and legs with an electric wire, gagged her, wrapped her in a carpet and then stuffed her into the sack, say police. They crammed a pillow into the sack to make it seem like they were carrying a bedroll. Then, they took her to the tea seller's house, located around a kilometre away.
The girl says she partly regained consciousness there, only to be subjected to a vicious beating and torture with electric shocks.
By then, a frantic search had begun for her. An hour after her abduction, her parents realized she was missing and approached police when they drew a blank with family and friends, Tripathi said. A police team rushed to the locality, gathered CCTV footage and began interviewing neighbours.
A woman informed police that she had heard a girl scream in the yoga teacher's house. Police searched the house but found nothing suspicious. After a technical investigation, however, police rounded up the accused around 11.30pm and began interrogating him.
Kidnappers would have killed the schoolgirl, say police
Initially, he tried to mislead the cops but under sustained questioning, he cracked around 4.30am on Thursday and revealed where the girl was being held hostage. A police team sped to the tea seller's house and rescued her.
"Even the cops were shocked to see the condition she was in. She was under tremendous shock and was covered in injuries. She also had electric current injuries all over her body," SHO Tripathi said.
"Had police delayed the investigation, the accused would have killed the girl. They have admitted that they abducted her to sell her and arrange money to repay their debts," he added.
IG Irshad Wali said police have registered a case and arrested both the accused.
The prime accused hails from Jamusar Kalan village, around 60km north of Bhopal, and had moved into a rented house in the locality three to four months ago. The duo has been booked under Pocso Act and IPC charges for abduction, attempted murder, molestation and trafficking.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
