Five-year-old girl raped, murdered; accused arrested
LUCKNOW: In yet another incident of bestiality, a five-year-old girl was brutally killed after being sexually assaulted by a distant relative in the crowded old Basmandi locality of Hasanganj area here.
The girl, who was staying with her grandparents, had been missing since Saturday evening and her badly wounded body was found near a graveyard -- barely 250 metres from her house -- during the wee hours of Sunday.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Praveen Kumar said the accused, Asif (19), has been arrested after substantial evidences were found against him.
“The kitchen knife used in the crime and the girl’s slippers and bloodstained clothes have been recovered from the youth’s house,” the SSP said, adding the accused confessed to his crime during police quizzing.
The deceased’s grandfather told HT, “We came to know about her disappearance around 5.30pm when she was nowhere to be seen in the house. Some people told us she was last spotted with Asif around 4pm. He had taken the girl along to buy some ice cream.”
When the girl could not be found despite two hours of search, the family called the police control room and informed the cops about the disappearance.
The family members continued searching for the girl through the night and spotted Asif carrying her body around 2am. “Asif ini- tially claimed he had seen some masked men with the girl near the graveyard. He claimed the men fled on seeing him, but we were suspicious about Asif’s role,” the grandfather said.
The SSP said the youth confessed to the entire sequence of events. “He said he lured the girl by promising to buy her ice cream, took here to a deserted place near the graveyard and raped her. He then killed the girl fearing she might disclose the crime to her grandparents,” he added. The SSP said the youth concocted the ‘masked men’ story to save his skin. The girl’s father, who is a tailor and works in a ready-made garments’ firm, stays in Jalandhar along with her mother and elder brother. The victim was admitted to nursery class in a private school here only two months ago.