India’s daughters under attack: 5-year-old girl raped, killed by neighbour in Jharkhand

A five-year-old girl in Dhanbad, Jharkhand was raped and killed last week.

Ranchi, May 1: Continuing with India's never-ending rape and murder of girls, one more minor has been reportedly raped in Dhanbad, Jharkhand on Saturday by her neighbour.

After committing the crime, the accused killed the victim too, reported ANI on Tuesday. The accused in the case has been arrested, added ANI. "Jharkhand: A 5-year-old girl allegedly raped & killed by her neighbour in Dhanbad on April 28. Accused arrested," tweeted ANI.

In the last few days, cases of rapes of minor girls have been reported from almost every corner of the country with mind-boggling frequency. Angry citizens of the country protested on roads in various parts of the country over the horrific rape cases reported from Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua and Uttar Pradesh's Unnao.

Both the cases caught the attention of the nation because of its barbarity and open support for the accused from a section of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After its "studied silence" over crimes against women, especially minor girls, the Narendra Modi government approved the ordinance to allow courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping girls under 12 recently.

The ordinance has got mixed reactions as many feel that laws hold no meaning if the authorities do not bring cases of rape to justice. Recently, a six-month-old infant was raped and killed in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. A school-going girl in Assam was also raped and set on fire recently. The girl has died. A three-year-old girl was recently raped in Chhatarpur, Chhattisgarh.

In spite of rising rape cases of minors, some BJP leaders are still making insensitive and outrageous comments on the Kathua rape case where an eight-year-old girl was gang-raped and killed by eight men.

On Monday, after taking oath as the new deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Kavinder Gupta called the rape in Jammu's Kathua a "small incident". However, after facing backlash, Gupta said the media misinterpreted his statement.

Speaking to the media, Gupta said that the Kathua rape is a small incident and it should not be given too much importance. "It (Kathua rape and murder) was a small thing. We have to be careful in the future that such incidents are not repeated," Gupta told reporters.