Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday joined the chorus seeking action against those who murdered a two-and-a-half-year-old girl in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.
According to police, the girl was kidnapped on May 31 and a first information report was filed at the Tappal police station in Aligarh district the same day. The child’s body was found two days later in a garbage dump. Two people, Zahid and Aslam, residents of Tappal town, have been arrested for allegedly killing the girl over a money dispute with her father.
“The horrific murder of a little girl in Aligarh, UP has shocked and disturbed me,” Congress President Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter. “How can any human being treat a child with such brutality? This terrible crime must not go unpunished. The UP police must act swiftly to bring the killers to justice.”
His sister and Congress General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, Priyanka Gandhi, added that it was an inhuman crime. “The brutal murder in Aligarh is yet another inhuman, unspeakable crime against an innocent child,” Priyanka Gandhi said. “I cannot even begin to imagine the pain her parents must feel. What has become of us?”
Also read: As girl is murdered in Aligarh, social media rumours fuel the outrage
The Aligarh Police on Friday said they will investigate the murder under the National Security Act. “We are proceeding with it as an NSA [National Security Act] case, we will try to get it to a fast track court,” Aligarh Senior Superintendent of Police Akash Kulhary said. “There is no mention of rape or acid in the postmortem report. Five police officials have been suspended.”
Kulhary also denied claims circulating on social media. “In the postmortem report there was no sign of any kind of sexual assault,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “No trace of acid was found, and contrary to what some social media posts claim, her eyes were not gouged out. As per the postmortem report she was strangled to death.”
Kulhary said the child’s father informed police that he and Zahid had an argument over Rs 10,000 that Zahid owed him. “Later Zahid was arrested and he confessed to killing the girl with the help of one Aslam,” Kulhary said. “We have arrested both of them for murder.”
He added that the murder had no communal angle and there was no tension in the area.
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