Towards evening on the 24th of March, the body of a fifteen-year-old Dalit Hindu girl was found near Kittur village in Belagavi district. A resident of Nargund in the neighboring Gadag district, she was missing since the 20th. Police later arrested Saddam Bettageri and have charged him with sections of murder and for trying to cover up evidence. Local Hindu organizations and the public, in general, carried out protests demanding justice for the minor who they allege is a victim of grooming jihad (aka Love Jihad).
That the young girl suffered in those last moments of her life became evident when her body was recovered. Saddam raped her, pulverized her head with a rock, disfigured her face, chopped off her right hand, slit her throat and her dead body was burnt. She was battered to death and in his quest to destroy the evidence the accused had mutilated the dead body.
The body was found from a farm and the police registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by the farmer who owned the property. Saddam is from the Dharwad district and is a JCB operator.
Such grooming jihadis (aka Love Jihadis) are known to be extremely violent once their female victims disagree with their proposal of conversion to Islam as a prelude to marriage. These fundamentalists are known to learn the art of using weapons and use terror/threats, also a common practice amongst grooming gangs in the West.
That the victim is a minor negates their alleged marriage but what drove Saddam to such extreme acts of brutality needs to be probed in detail. Who indoctrinates these Muslim youth to consider Hindu girls as commodities, to be brutally eliminated if they refuse to accede to their demands and submit to Allah?
The girl’s father works as a cashier in a nearby hotel and the family also farm. The girl used to help with the family farm on weekends. On that fateful Saturday, the father came home during a break, tried calling his daughter’s phone which was found to be switched off. The police force as usual tried their best to sweep the matter under the carpet.
He approached the Nargund police station immediately informing them that his minor girl is missing. The police allegedly failed to register the complaint or search for the missing girl. By night the police understood the gravity after the father approached them with other locals from the village and they registered the complaint at 11 pm. Precious time had been lost.
Later on, Saddam was in fact arrested after the girl’s father had named him as a person of interest and he was called for questioning. Where being proactive was the need of the hour such negligence should shame the entire police force. Why was Saddam not arrested or questioned as soon as police were informed about the missing girl on the 20th of March? Could the girl’s life had been saved if the police had acted promptly?
After all isn’t this exactly why laws like POCSO exist, to prioritize protection of underage girls who can make foolish decisions or get emotionally manipulated by groomers like Saddam?
A national mainstream media blackout of the incident made sure that the rest of Bharat remained uninformed about this gruesome crime that happened in rural Karnataka. The ones that did come out after the arrests tried to actually question whether Grooming Jihad or Love Jihad even exists, shamelessly forgetting that the embers of the dead girl’s funeral had not yet cooled. Concerned citizens updated their social media on whatever news was trickling though.
The Bhim Army or for that matter, many other organizations that are supposed to be the ‘crusaders’ for Dalit rights remained silent. This is due to the fact that the accused killer is a Muslim. The Bhim Army does not involve in matters where the accused are Muslims which makes it pretty clear as to who sponsors the fake group.
Angered by the murder, Hindu locals, turned up in large numbers demanding death penalty for Saddam and all such criminals, and stricter anti-grooming laws to be enacted. This poor Hindu family from Gadag awaits justice.
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