Assam: Two arrested in rape & murder of minor in Dibrugarh tea estate

Dibrugarh: Police arrested two persons on Thursday in connection with the suspected rape and murder incident of an 8-year-old minor Adivasi girl at Dirial Tea Estate, Duliajan in Assam's Dibrugarh district.

On the evening of September 22, the minor girl and her parents, who work at Dirial Tea Estate, went to Kachariya Line inside the estate to attend a tribute program for singer Zubeen Garg.

After the memorial program ended, the parents began searching for their minor daughter but found that she was missing.

Her parents and the workers of the Dirial Tea Estate searched throughout the night but couldn’t find her.

The next morning, around 7 a.m., her parents and workers found her partially naked body with torn clothes in a narrow canal at section no. 17 inside the tea estate.

It is suspected that she was raped and murdered, and her body was dumped in the canal.

After discovering the body, angry workers staged a demonstration on the road demanding the police arrest the culprits and give them capital punishment.

On Thursday, Dibrugarh SSP Rakesh Reddy said that the police arrested two individuals, Sudarshan Nayak (41) and Sunil Mura (31), in connection with the case. Both work at Dirial Tea Estate.

He said that the police are continuing the investigation and may involve more individuals in the heinous incident. They are interrogating the accused, and they are awaiting the post-mortem report.

Mithu Raaj Kisku, secretary of the All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (AASAA) Dibrugarh district, condemned the incident and called for capital punishment for the culprits.