10-year-old raped, killed, dumped in duct

The postmortem report attributed the girl’s death to “hemorrhage and shock due to stab injury over the neck affecting vital structures, with evidence of sexual assault”

THANE: A 20-year-old Mumbra resident was arrested late at night on Monday for allegedly raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl from the same neighbourhood. The man had lured the girl into his building when she was out playing on Monday evening and dumped her half-naked body in the building’s duct after raping and murdering her, said police.

The girl’s body was found in the building’s duct. (Praful Gangurde /HT Photo)

The deceased’s mother, a 40-year-old widow, works as a domestic help. “My daughter was having her exams. So when she returned from school around 6pm on Monday, I gave her food and asked her to study,” she told Hindustan Times.

The girl, however, told her that she knew everything for the next paper and asked if she could go out to play. Her mother allowed her and herself left for work. When she returned around 8pm, hoping to put the girl to bed early, she was unable to find her.

“I searched everywhere, but couldn’t find my daughter,” she said, holding back her tears.

Sometime later, an 11-year-old boy who regularly played with the girl told her mother that a man had lured her with chips and chocolates into Shraddha Apartment, an adjacent building, around 7.30pm. He had been watching her for a while, the boy told her.

“By then, it was 9:45pm. I was terrified. My daughter was mature – she would never go anywhere without telling me,” she told HT.

Around the same time, residents of Shraddha Apartment heard a loud thud from the building’s duct. Irfan Todlikar, a first-floor resident, noticed his water tank emptying and assumed someone had thrown garbage into the duct, damaging his pipe. He approached the building secretary, Trupti Bane, to report the issue.

While the building residents were discussing the matter, the girl’s mother reached there with a photo of her daughter and the 11-year-old boy and told them everything that he had seen.

“After hearing the boy’s account, we asked the mother to inform the police while we went to check the duct. We were horrified to find the girl’s half-naked body lying face-down there,” Bane told HT.

The police reached the spot and sent the girl’s body for postmortem. A team led by sub-inspector Vinayak Mane swiftly investigated the matter, gathered evidence and took the suspect, Asif Akbar Mansuri, into custody based on the boy’s identification.

“The accused has confessed to the crime and further legal action is underway,” said senior police inspector Anil Shinde from Mumbra police station.

The postmortem report attributed the girl’s death to “hemorrhage and shock due to stab injury over the neck affecting vital structures, with evidence of sexual assault.” Based on this, Mansuri has been booked under sections 103(1), 96, 137(2), 64, 65(2), 64(i) and 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with sections 4, 6, 8, and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

The girl’s mother demanded strict punishment for the accused.

“The monster threw my daughter’s body into the duct like she was garbage. I did everything to raise her with love, care, and protection and he crushed her completely in just an hour,” she said.