The world was horrified when Twinkle Sharma was brutally killed when she was just two years old.
The little girl had faced devastating abuse, leading to her brutal death in Aligarh, India.
In a barbaric act of revenge, the two-year-old girl was abused by two men identified as Zahid and Aslam, who lived just 500 metres from her family’s home. Together the men strangled the toddler to death, gouged out her eyes and crushed her hands after her father failed to repay a loan.
It’s believed the loan was worth 5,000 rupees, the equivalent of roughly £42, and as their revenge for non-payment, they took the little girl’s life. While the signs of such extreme physical abuse are clear, it is believed the child may have also faced forms of sexual abuse.
Twinkle Sharma had been reported missing since May 31. Then police received a horrifying call – someone had seen stray dogs dragging a mutilated human body from a rubbish bin. The body was later identified as belonging to the two-year-old girl.
The innocent girl’s mother, Shilpa said: “The stench of her body is still fresh in my nose. That image of her lying in a garbage heap, in that condition, haunts me. I do not think I can ever get it out of my head,” The Print reports.
The incident shocked the world and the people of India took to social media to voice their outrage. The hashtag #TwinkleSharma garnered over 17,000 posts in just 24 hours as Indians called for a harsher punishment for the perpetrators, CGTN reports.
Bollywood actor Ayushman Khurrana’s wrote: “This is inhumane and barbaric; my prayers for her family. Justice must be served. #TwinkleSharma. Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh shared: “Makes me sick and angry to read such news!!
“The govt and authorities must give the right punishment to such inhumane people who kill an innocent child. No outrage from the ‘usual suspects’ over the brutal murder of Twinkle Sharma in Aligarh.”
Another famous figure, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan, shared at the time: “Just so disgusted and angered hearing about #twinklesharma. How can somebody even think of doing such a thing? Speechless…”
The news of Sprinkle’s death came after a series of other brutal killings of children in India, where the nation felt justice was not served.
In 2013, following the outrage over the rape and murder of a student in Delhi, serious changes were made within legislation.
The indian governnment announced they would be introducing the death penalty, applicable in cases of rape resulting in death. Measures like this are deeemd neccesary by many living in the country as in 2016, 106 rapes per day were recorded in India – with four in every ten of those victims being minors.