The man arrested for the alleged rape of two Dalit minor girls in the Hinduni Badhar area of Patna used cement blocks to smash their faces, said police on Saturday. The accused, Dayanand Rai (55), led the girls to a secluded area and abused them after they asked him for cow dung cakes, said Patna SSP Rajeev Mishra.
The blocks used were seized and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for analysis, he added.
Of the two girls, one died after sustaining fatal injuries while the other is currently receiving treatment at AIIMS, Patna.
Their families said both girls had gone together to collect cow dung cakes on Monday but did not return home. Locals found the body of one of the minors on Tuesday.
Rajeev Mishra said injury reports from AIIMS cannot negate the rape of the two girls.
Further, the senior cop said Dayanand Rai is a habitual offender and was involved in multiple incidents of abuse. In an earlier incident, Rai attempted to molest children and was eventually thrashed by neighbours, said Rajeev Mishra.
Rai also accepted his involvement in another case where a 70-year-old woman’s dead body was recovered in similar circumstances, added the official.
Dayanand Rai was arrested on Friday, days after political leaders and locals protested over “police inaction” in the case. Villagers in Hinduni Badhar had also attacked an investigating team from the Patna Police after getting agitated over the lack of arrests in the case.
SSP Rajeev Mishra told reporters on Saturday that no action had been initiated in the attack on the police team as the anger of the locals was “genuine”.
Meanwhile, a war of words erupted between the BJP and the ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, with both the JD(U) and the RJD slamming Union Minister Giriraj Singh for trying to give a communal colour to the incident.
JD(U) national secretary Rajiv Ranjan said that Giriraj Singh’s “dictionary was limited to words like Hindu, Muslim, and Pakistan”. RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari also blamed Giriraj Singh for making communal statements and said the Patna Police strived hard to arrest the accused.