1 held for rape, murder of 2-yr-old in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat police on Friday arrested a man in connection with the rape and murder of a two-year-old girl in Morbi town.

“The girl went missing from her home late on Wednesday night. Her family members work as labourers in ceramic tiles factories. Her body was later recovered from a pond on Jetpar road late on Thursday evening,’’ said police sub inspector Shaktisinh Gohil.

“Police have arrested Suraj Chauhan, who is also a migrant labourer, for the crime under the Pocso Act,’’ the officer said.

Police said preliminary investigation revealed that the two-year-old was raped before being killed. “We have been waiting for the post-mortem report to know the exact cause of the death,’’ the officer added.

Police said the girl’s mother had raised suspicion about Chauhan. The woman came to know about her child’s disappearance when she suddenly woke up late on Wednesday night and could not find her daughter. The family raised an alarm and began looking for her along with their neighbours. However, they soon suspected Chauhan as he was missing from his quarters. Morbi town in Saurashtra peninsula is an industrial belt with clusters of ceramic and clock industry. While the clock manufacturing units mainly have local labourers, the ceramic industry has a sizeable proportion of migrants.

Before the Union government brought out an ordinance last month with capital punishment in cases of sexual assault against children below the age of 12, an 11-year-old girl in Rajkot city gave birth to a baby girl in January this year after she was allegedly gang-raped by six men.