2 held in Gorkha girl rape and murder

The brutal rape and murder of beautician Champa Chettri, a 20-year-old in Baragolai, Tinsukia district of Assam, continues to boil, with the police on Sunday claiming to have cracked the case by arresting two suspects.

The girl’s charred and badly disfigured body was discovered floating on the Dihing river.

The police has since arrested two men — Biswajit Chettri and Moinul Ali — and charged them under Sections 366, 376 and 342/34 of the IPC.

Champa Chettri was reported missing by her family on April 29 when she did not return from her workplace, a local beauty parlour. Her body was found to have been floating in the Dihing river by some local youths on May 3. After an attempt to burn the body of the victim failed, the perpetrators are suspected to have dumped her body into the river.

Rakesh Furba Sherpa, the president of the Tinsukia regional committee of the All-Assam Gorkha Students Union, has also written a letter to the Prime Minister equating the barbaric incident of rape and murder with the 2012 Nirbhaya case. He wrote: “It is sad that the 2012 Nirbhaya case has been repeated in Assam.”

The Gorkha students had also called a bandh of Tinsukia district on Monday demanding strict action against the accused. The Assam police, which is tightlipped about its findings, however, claimed that it is probing the incident and waiting for forensic report.