Kolkata:
A 13-year-old schoolgirl was gang-raped and murdered in West Bengal on Monday and her body was found yesterday lying in a bamboo grove.
The attack occurred at Gede in the Nadia district, about 150 km from Kolkata.
The Class 7 student was apparently returning from school at around 3 pm when it started raining, forcing her to take shelter in a railway shed. A boy from the neighbourhood, 22-year-old Bimal Sardar, offered to share his umbrella with her and walk her home.
As they set out, two other men apparently known to Bimal joined them, dragged the girl into a bamboo grove, raped her and then strangled her.
Yesterday, a couple of farmers spotted her body in the grove. Bimal Sardar was arrested but the two others involved are absconding.
This incident comes three days after a 20-year-old college student was gangraped and murdered at a village just 25 km from Kolkata, triggering violent protests by locals.
In that case, the student had been attacked so viciously that her thigh bone had been broken.