Missing 11-year-old girl’s body found stuffed in bag

body of an 11-yearold girl, who had been missing for a week from northeast Delhi, was found in a bag alongside a drain near Yamuna Biodiversity Park in Timarpur on Sunday morning. A handkerchief found around her neck suggested she was strangled to death, police said.

Police have, prima facie, ruled out sexual assault, but officials have sent the body for a postmortem.

The girl’s family, who live in Babarpur, had filed a kidnapping case at the Welcome police station on October 22, police said. Her family members told police that she had gone to a neighbour’s house for studies, but did not return.

The motive behind the crime and identity of the killers could not be ascertained till Sunday night.

Deputy commissioner of police (north) Nupur Prasad said Timarpur police received a call around 7.30am regarding an unclaimed bag on the side of the road. “A police team reached there. The bag was opened the girl’s body was found inside. There were strangulation marks around her neck. A cloth was also found tied to her neck,” said Prasad.

As the Timarpur police was making efforts to ascertain the girl’s identity, officers from Welcome police station informed them about a girl missing from their area since October 22.

Police said the girl’s family had approached Welcome police station after they had heard news of the discovery of a girl’s body in Timarpur. “The missing girl’s family were taken to the mortuary after they insisted on seeing the body. They identified her as their missing daughter,” said a police officer associated with the case that was not authorised to talk to the media.

Police said the girl lived with her parents and three siblings in Babarpur area.

Her father is a welder by profession and mother a housewife, police officials said.

On October 22 around 10.30am, she left home to go to a neighbour’s house to study. When she did not return by the evening, her parents started panicking, police said.

When they went to the neighbour’s house, they were told the girl had left around 1pm. When the family members failed to find her, they filed the missing complaint.

Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (northeast) said, “We had registered a kidnapping case. The sections of murder have now been added in the FIR.”

An investigating officer said, “Prime facie, it appears that the killers had confined the girl somewhere. She was murdered either on Friday or Saturday because the body did not appear to have significantly decomposed.”

POLICE OFFICIALS HAVE PRIMA FACIE RULED OUT SEXUAL ASSAULT, BUT THE BODY HAS BEEN SENT FOR A POSTMORTEM EXAMINATION