Bikash Kumar Sharma of Dhan Bazar area and Rikash Pradhan of Balukhad area. Northeast Now

Two youths, identified as 20-year-old Bikash Kumar Sharma, son of Susil Sharma of Dhan Bazar area and 20-year-old Rikash Pradhan, son of Bir Pradhan of Balukhad area, both under Margherita Police Station in Tinsukia district, were arrested in the wee hours on Monday for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl of the area at Namdang tea garden on April 16 night.

According to police, one of the accused, Bikash Kumar Sharma, who is a neighbor of the victim girl, allegedly took from a Bihu programme organized at the Centrel Field in Margherita to the Namdang tea garden where his accomplice Rikash Pradhan was waiting for them.

Also read: 2nd incident in a week: 55-year-old sexually assaults minor at Tinsukia’s Margherita

“After committing the crime by Pradhan at night in the garden, Bikash Sharma fetched her back and raped her again near Dhan Bazar on same night of April 16,” said sources.

The matter came to light on Monday evening when the victim girl told her mother about the entire incident following which the mother informed it to the police immediately resulting in apprehension of the duo during a late night operation.

Lauding the prompt action of the team of Margherita Police for netting the culprits, the Tinsukia Superintendent of Police, Mugdha Jyoti Mahanta regretted about the growing trend among the youths in particular and a section of ‘obsessed and lust-driven mongers’ of the society.

According to him, adequate civic virtues and meaning full family bonding and parental quality time to teens at home may help resisting the evil forces and prevent the offspring from committing such crimes in the society.

“Local organisations, various police-citizen committees, NGOs, schools and colleges should come forward, create awareness and coordinate with the local police to get rid of such crimes in the society,” said Mahanta.

Meanwhile, Margherita Police registering a case at 103/18 under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, produced the accused before the court which sent them to the jail.

Laxman Sharma is Northeast Now Correspondent in Digboi. He can be reached at: [email protected]

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