4-year-old murdered in Ghaziabad: Autopsy shows sexual assault, say cops

Investigators said the suspect could be a person known to the girl and that the injuries on her body were not fresh

The autopsy report of a four-year-old girl, who was found murdered near her house on March 11, has suggested that she was being sexually assaulted, but going by her injuries, the assault did not appear to have happened just prior to her death. The report also said the child was smothered to death, police said on Monday.

Accordingly, police have added Indian Penal Code Section 376 (rape) to the FIR as well as relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, senior officers associated with the case said. (Representational Image)

Accordingly, police have added Indian Penal Code Section 376 (rape) to the FIR as well as relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, senior officers associated with the case said.

“Doctors on the basis of injuries suggest that there was no fresh sexual assault on the day of the incident; the injuries were old. This indicates that the girl was assaulted during the past days and killed on Saturday (last week). We suspect several people who were known to the girl,” said a senior police officer, asking not to be named.

“The girl was smothered to death. We have added section of rape and also levied provisions of Pocso. The case is being investigated by seven police teams and it is likely that the suspect will be nabbed soon,” Vivek Chandra Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (trans-Hindon).

Police said the girl lost her father in January last year and her mother soon became mentally unstable. She was living with a family who acted as her local guardian. Police said the girl was walking home with two other children around 3pm Saturday when she went missing.

Her body was discovered a day later, about 3km from her house at an isolated spot, police said. The police ordered an autopsy by a panel of doctors and it was conducted on Sunday; the reports came on Monday evening, officers said.

Investigators said the suspect could be a person known to the girl and that the injuries on her body were not fresh. It is likely that they could crack the case by Tuesday, they said.