CM orders probe into stripping of tribal girl at Dumka, 4 girls held

Shashank  Shekhar

Ranchi ( Jharkhand) : Dumka police on August 8, 2017, evening arrested four tribal girl students for allegedly stripping a tribal girl student naked and parading her inside S P College, Dumka, girls hostel, the video of which went viral. Police have even taken the college hostel warden Anju Murmu and another senior student Latika into custody. They are being interrogated to know who others were involved in the incident.The accused had charged the victim with stealing a mobile phone of one of their colleagues.

The four arrested girls have been identified as Sonamani Murmu, Anjula Murmu, Bhavani Soren and Baby Besra, the first three stripped the girl naked followed by parade, while Baby Besra videographed it. They were forcing the victim, daughter of a poor farmer, to accept that she had stolen a mobile phone worth Rs 18,000 on August 1, 2017, even as she first claimed that she had bought a second hand mobile but later accepted that she stolen it and even  agreed to pay back the price after taking money from her father but despite that she was paraded nude.

When the video of  the four hour ordeal went viral, the victim, who was staying at private hostel at Baxi Bandh road, Dumka, was asked to vacate the hostel by the hostel proprietor saying that she was bringing bad name to the his hostel.

Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das has directed the Dumka Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mukesh Kumar  to conduct an inquiry into the incident. Sidho-Kanha Murmu university Vice – Chancellor (VC) Manoranjan Prasad Singh has also ordered an inquiry into the matter. Social Welfare minister of Jharkhand and Dumka MLA Louis Marandi said she has asked the district administration to punish those involved in the incident.