Missing 12-year-old girl found dead

The girl had stepped out of her home around 4.30pm and her body with injury marks was found in the bushes in Padgha in Thane Rural on Tuesday morning

MUMBAI: A 12-year-old girl from Kolsewadi in Kalyan East who was reported missing on Monday night was found dead on Tuesday. The girl had stepped out of her home around 4.30pm and her body with injury marks was found in the bushes in Padgha in Thane Rural on Tuesday morning, said police.

Missing 12-year-old girl found dead

“The girl had gone to a nearby store to buy chips when she was kidnapped,” said Ashok Kadam, senior police inspector of Kolsewadi police station, where her father lodged the missing complaint at 11pm on Monday after failing to locate her for several hours. All cases of missing minors are treated as kidnapping cases by the state police.

“Around 11am today (Tuesday), we got a call from the police saying a girl’s body had been found near a cemetry along the road leading to Padgha bridge,” said her father, who drives a tourist vehicle. The body turned out to be of his missing daughter.

“My daughter was excited as we were scheduled to leave for our village in a day or two and she wanted to continue her studies there,” said the girl’s father.

He suspected that an auto driver who was booked for molestation by the Kolsewadi police earlier this month based on his complaint had kidnapped and killed his daughter, more so since he too has gone missing. But the Padgha police – the girl’s body was found in an area under the jurisdiction of Padga police station – have not named the driver as an accused despite registering a murder case.

“We have sent the body of the girl for postmortem to JJ Hospital. Apart from giving exact cause of her death, the postmortem will also make it clear if she was sexually assaulted,” said a police officer from Padgha police station.