A nine-year-old girl was raped in Alipurduar district on Friday afternoon, around the same time a five-year-old girl was raped and murdered in another location of the district.

Police arrested Kajol Mandal, the nine-year-old girl’s 34-year-old neighbour soon after the crime.

On Friday, an angry mob in another part of Alipurduar district lynched accused Mona Roy, 40, after he confessed to raping and killing the five-year-old girl.

Another minor was raped and murdered in the district around a fortnight back.

These recurring instances prompted BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari to slam the Mamata Banerjee government.

Manoranjan Byapari, the TMC MLA of Balagarh in Hooghly, also expressed his concern over such incidents in Bengal.

On Friday afternoon, the nine-year-old girl was playing near her house when her neighbour Kajol Mandal offered her chocolates and asked her to accompany him for a walk.

Then, Kajol took her to a nearby forest and raped her.

He then warned the girl not to disclose anything to any family member.

Her family members, who were searching for her, found her and took her home where her mother found her bleeding. Asked, the child revealed the horrible torture she had undergone.

As the news spread, angry residents planned to catch Kajol. However, a team from the local police station rushed to the spot and took him into custody, Later, the girl’s family filed a complaint against him and he was formally arrested.

The girl was taken to the local health centre and later shifted to the Alipurduar district hospital where she is still under treatment.

“We have arrested the accused. Our officers will interrogate him to gather more information about the crime,” said Y. Raghuvamshi, the superintendent of police of Alipurduar.

He added that Bhakta Roy, an accomplice of Mona Roy who was lynched on Friday afternoon, was arrested the same night.

A pall of gloom has descended on the area where the five-year-old girl was raped and murdered on Friday.

On Saturday, many neighbours of the deceased child said they didn’t cook at home and instead mourned the girl’s death.

On Saturday evening, Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, reached the girl’s village and met her parents after campaigning for Rahul Lohar, the party’s Madarihat candidate for the November 13 bypoll.

“The state government has become a protector of rapists. That is why people are daring to commit such heinous crimes. The police should probe all these cases properly to ensure maximum punishment of those involved in the incidents,” Adhikari said to the bereaved family and neighbours.

TMC MLA Byapari questioned on social media if Bengal had become an “open ground for rapists and murderers”.

“I fail to understand from where these people are getting the courage (to commit these crimes).... Among those who have been raped and murdered in recent times, most are children and girls,” posted the MLA.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh dubbed the incidents as “heinous social crimes” and claimed they had nothing to do with the state’s law and order.

“These incidents have nothing to do with law and order.... It is not a political
element but a concern of society. There is no point in raising fingers at each other,” he wrote.