Patna: An eight-year-old girl was found dead in a sack in a flooded paddy field near Patna on Wednesday evening, prompting outrage among local residents and raising serious concerns over child safety in the region.
The child, whose hands were reportedly bound with copper wire and head enclosed within the sack, had gone missing earlier that afternoon while grazing goats with her younger sister near a four-lane highway in Athmalgola, a semi-rural area on the outskirts of the city. Police suspect she may have been sexually assaulted and electrocuted, though a postmortem report is awaited to confirm the cause of death.
Her family, originally from Balwa block in Saharsa district, had been living in a hut in Athmalgola for the past five years. The father works as a labourer, and the family supplements its income through a small grocery shop and goat rearing.
According to relatives, the girl left home around noon with her sister. When the younger sibling returned alone two hours later, the family began searching. Her slippers were discovered on a mattress inside an unfinished house nearby. Her body was later found around 7pm, approximately 50 metres from the building.
The discovery has left the family devastated. “We had no enmity with anyone,” a relative said, adding that the girl was found in the same clothes she had worn earlier in the day.
News of the incident quickly spread, and dozens of villagers gathered at the site, blocking traffic on the highway in protest. Police have since taken the body into custody and launched an investigation, stating that all angles are being explored.
