GUWAHATI: Two porn addicts, both minor, stoned a six-year-old girl to death for resisting sexual advances in Nagaon district of Assam.

The police arrested the duo -- both 11-year-old, and another boy who is eight. Parents of one of the accused were also held.

The girl was murdered on October 18. She was found lying unconscious inside the toilet of a stone-crushing mill and rushed to a hospital but the doctors declared her dead on arrival.

Nagaon SP Anand Mishra tweeted: “Family/Social intervention & institutional guidance to the kids could have saved these 4 young lives. 1 Lost Life, 3 Lost for Life. It can happen with any one of us or anyone around us. If our upcoming generations fail on socio-moral standards, the responsibility lies greatly upon us!”

The Nagaon police said the accused were porn addicts, capable of conspiracy and gruesome execution of a dastardly crime. “It seems it’s time for introspection and social intervention,” the police said.

Sub Divisional Police Officer, Mrinmoy Das, told The New Indian Express that the victim was a next-door neighbour of the three minor boys who are cousins. He said the girl was not raped.

“One of the minors, who studies at an English medium school, is from a well-to-do family. He wanted to have a physical relationship with the victim but she resisted it. When she said she would tell her parents about his misbehaviour, he attacked her with a stone and injured her. Later, he attacked her further in the same manner along with the other 11-year-old,” Das said.

He said the eight-year-old had supported the duo in committing the crime. He also said that the parents of the boy, who wanted to have a physical relationship with the victim, knew about the incident but they hid it and tempered with evidence.

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“The boy was using his father’s smartphone. The man and his wife do not know how to use it. We found pornographic materials in the phone’s browsing history…

“The father said he and his wife found the child in a compromising position once with his own elder sister. He used the phone for his online classes but got addicted to watching porn. He would show porn contents to his cousins,” Das said.

His criminal mind was active as evident from his attempt to cover up the incident. His child-like innocence was found missing, the police officer said.

He said one observation was that the boys of today, forced to use cell phones for their online classes, were attaining puberty or adulthood at a very early age.

“We will produce the trio before a court and it is likely to send them to a juvenile court. The couple has been with us for two days and we will not seek their custody. They are likely to be remanded to judicial custody,” the police officer added.

Jayanta Das, a Guwahati-based senior consultant psychiatrist, blamed the phenomenon on the advent of smartphones. Earlier, he said, the mothers would tell stories to their kids while feeding them but now they show them the device.

“This is a dangerous phenomenon. The pandemic has created a situation where the parents are compelled to hand the mobile phone over to their children for online classes,” Das said.

He said by observing the parents use the mobile phone constantly, even a one-year-old infant can imitate their actions.

“Our societal lifestyle and family pattern are disturbed nowadays. Access to porn content has become very easy. This has hugely affected our children. The roles of parents and teachers have become more important,” Das added.