9-year-old allegedly raped and murdered in West Bengal

A nine-year-old was allegedly raped and murdered in the Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district, leading to stone pelting on a police station by an angered mob on Tuesday which demanded that the accused be handed over to them.

The officer-in-charge of Basanti police station Koushik Kundu was injured when a stone thrown by the mob hit him on the head, police said.

He was rushed to the hospital bleeding. There were, however, no arrests.

The nine-year-old had gone missing after she left her home at Kumirmari to buy some provisions on Saturday evening.

There was a thunderstorm and she did not return. Her body was found rolled in a cloth later that night in a room in a youth's home during a search by her family members. Her father lodged a complaint with the police accusing four persons the next day, police said.

Police early today arrested three of the accused – the youth, his father and his sister-in-law, while his mother, the fourth accused, is absconding.

Trouble erupted when the arrested were being taken to Alipore court in Kolkata. The police station was gheraoed by the mob who demanded that the three be handed over to them.

They threw stones and injured Kundu. Later, however, the police persuaded them to withdraw.

The three were produced before the court which remanded them to seven days in police custody.