Sikkim: 11-year-old girl raped, murdered by taxi driver in Gangtok

An 11-year-old school girl from Sichey area in Gangtok was found dead on April 14 in Fambonglo village near Pangthang, some five kilometres from Gangtok.

When the victim did not return home from school on April 10, a missing person’s complaint was filed by her mother on April 11. Four days later, a body was found in Fambonglo village by a local resident gathering firewood. He informed of the dead body to Lingdok Police outpost.

The same information was shared with Gangtok District Police, who, upon showing the photos of the dead body to the parents, identified the victim as their daughter based on the evidence of necklace she was wearing. The body had started decomposing by then.

The police then started the hunt for the accused and looked into CCTV footage from the Tamang Gumpa area, where the victim had supposedly boarded a taxi to go home. The police then questioned several taxi drivers and their unions to figure out how a Tamang Gumpa resident was found dead in Pangthang forest.

Zeroing-in on the accused, Sikkim Police Special DGP Akshay Sachdeva on Tuesday said, “After the body was found in Pangthang, the postmortem suggested that the victim was strangled and there were signs of sexual assault, which increased the offence multiple times.”

The police had one prime lead in a taxi driver who was seen in a CCTV footage near Tibetan Jhora in Sichey, where the girl had boarded the vehicle.

“We tracked the accused’s phone number despite him being unknown. He was intercepted at Ranipool police station last evening around 6 pm and brought for interrogation to Sadar Police Station,” Sachdeva said.

Following the interrogation that last three hours, Sikkim Police said the accused person has admitted to his crimes of murder and sexual assault on the minor.

“He admitted he gave the child lift in his vehicle because it was raining. Despite reaching her residential area, he lured her to go along with her to another location on the pretext of adding fuel to his vehicle. He got the victim a juice and took her to the isolated Fambonglo forest area. He admitted to sexual assault and strangulating her with his bare hands fearing that she would disclose the heinous act. He later tied the school uniform tie to make it look like another crime,” the DGP said.

The accused has been identified as 29-year-old Pritam Sharma, a resident of Tathangchen in Gangtok, who has been working as a taxi driver for over 10 years. He was married to a Sikkimese local and even has an 8-year-old child at home. While the accused was born and brought up in Gangtok, his family originally hails from Samastipur in Bihar.

Narrating the day of the incident, the victim’s mother shared, “My daughter had gone to school in the morning, but never returned. I searched for her like a mad person, yet didn’t find my child. On the same day, I came to Sadar Police Station and complained about it. They asked for my daughter’s photo and my phone number. They told us that the information is shared in the police group and in 24 hours they will start searching. But despite 30 hours being spent, the police were yet to initiate investigation. Only after I came and cried, that they started the investigation. But that was already very late. I don’t ask much nor have anything to say to anyone but the way my daughter struggled for her life, the same treatment should be meted against the accused.”

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