Sleeping toddler abducted, raped and murdered

A two-year-old girl in Pune was abducted, raped and then strangulated to death by an unknown person in the wee hours of Sunday. The police have rounded up several suspects but no formal arrest has been made.

The girl was asleep with her parents and one of her relatives at home on Saturday. On the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, the victim’s mother realised that the toddler was not at home.

The mother called control room at 12:33 am and said in her complaint that she had latched the door before going to bed on Saturday night. At midnight, she found her daughter missing. This suggested that someone had opened the latched door through a side window. There are two doors in the house and both can be easily opened through the window.

“A missing and kidnapping case was accordingly registered at Sinhgad Road Police Station. We searched for the missing girl all night. There is huge farmland and bushes around her house. We found the missing girl early Sunday morning and immediately rushed her to a nearby government hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. According to the doctor, the girl was possibly sexually assaulted before she was strangulated; there were strangulation marks on her neck. We have added sections of sexual assault and murder to the FIR,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Pravin Munde told the Free Press Journal.

Munde said several suspects were rounded up and have been detained at the police station. “We are sending them back after verifying their antecedents,” added DCP Munde.