Faridabad: 36-year-old man held for murder of 5-year-old, cops suspect rape

According to police, the girl was last seen near her house in Palla area’s Harkesh Nagar at approximately 4.30pm on Monday.

A 36-year-old man was arrested in Faridabad on Tuesday for murdering a five-year-old girl, police said, adding that the suspect lived in the same building as the victim’s family and used his familiarity to kidnap the girl and possibly rape her.

The suspect is alleged to have murdered the girl within 90 minutes of kidnapping her.

According to police, the girl was last seen near her house in Palla area’s Harkesh Nagar at approximately 4.30pm on Monday. The victim lived with her parents and two brothers in a rented accommodation. The girl’s father works in a factory, and her mother is a homemaker.

After she was reported missing, her parents reviewed CCTV footage from nearby shops, where they found that the suspect was leading the girl on foot somewhere.

Police were alerted, and a search for the accused was launched. The suspect was apprehended by 9pm on Monday in an inebriated condition, according to investigators familiar with the probe.

Based on information he provided, police searched a jungle area behind a farmhouse in Palla.

After searching in the neighbourhood for around four to five hours, investigators found the girl’s body at around 1.30am on Tuesday.

A senior police official stated the girl appeared to have been strangled with her own clothes.

The official cited above, who asked not to be identified, also said it is suspected that the accused raped the girl before murdering her, but this will be confirmed by an autopsy report.

Assistant commissioner of police (Old Faridabad) Sanjeev Kumar provided a sequence of events. He stated the girl was playing with her mother on their terrace on Monday evening.

“The woman asked the five-year-old girl to go downstairs and tell her brother to get ready for going to tuition classes. The minor followed the direction and after stepping down, she came out of the home to play with other children, from where she went missing,” he said.

As anxiety mounted over her disappearance, her parents searched frantically for nearly two hours.

Their search led them to a neighbourhood pharmacy, where they reviewed CCTV footage, ACP Kumar said on Tuesday.

“During this search, they also sought help from the owner of a pharmacy shop in the neighbourhood to check if the girl was visible in CCTV camera footage,” he further added.

Once they saw the girl accompanying the neighbour, who locals told police was “known for being friendly with children”, they started looking for him.

However, the phone of the accused was switched off, the ACP said.

One of the investigators cited above said that the parents and other neighbours then panicked and immediately alerted the Palla police station and a manhunt was launched to trace the suspect.

The suspect is alleged to have murdered the girl within 90 minutes of kidnapping her.

A first information report (FIR) for kidnapping and murder has been registered at the Palla police station based on the father’s complaint. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination. The investigation is ongoing