Adopted minor girl is suspect in father’s murder in Ghaziabad, efforts on to trace her

The incident was reported to the police on Thursday evening by the man’s wife -- the names of the couple have been withheld to protect the identity of the minor -- who returned home from work and found their second floor flat locked from outside. She used her duplicate keys to open the door and enter the flat

A 14-year-old minor girl, the adopted daughter of a couple residing in Vaishali, is the prime suspect in the murder of her 58-year-old father, who was found dead at their flat in Sector 4 on Thursday evening, police said on Friday, adding that the minor has fled the house and efforts are on to find her.

The dead man's body. Focus on hand (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The incident was reported to the police on Thursday evening by the man’s wife -- the names of the couple have been withheld to protect the identity of the minor -- who returned home from work and found their second floor flat locked from outside. She used her duplicate keys to open the door and enter the flat. Police said she found her husband lying motionless, with a plastic rope tied around his neck. The woman, who works with the health department in Delhi, understood he was dead and called up the police.

“My daughter was missing from home. She had taken away her schoolbag and locked the flat from outside. I suspect that my daughter killed him,” the woman said in her police complaint.

“We responded to the call and found the body of the man in the flat. He appeared to have been strangled. The wife told us that he had some ailment and was taking treatment for that. The house was not ransacked but the couple’s adopted daughter, a class 7 student of a private school in Vaishali, was missing. When we scanned the CCTV camera footage, and we saw the girl walking away with her schoolbag. There was possibly a young man along with her -- he was walking a couple of steps ahead of her,” said Gyanendra Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (city 2).

The police said they believe that the murder took place around 4.30pm Thursday as it was around that time that the girl was captured by the cameras walking away from the flat, along with the unidentified man .The wife arrived home from work around 7.45pm, police said.

The girl is the prime suspect in the case as of now and our teams are trying to find her to understand what had transpired,” he said.

The SP further said the girl had strained relations with her father. “According to his wife, he had got an FIR of rape lodged against the girl’s male friend about three months ago, after she allegedly went away with him. But that case did not stand as the girl gave a statement in favour of her friend. She and her father had frequent altercations since then,” Singh said, adding that the man seen in the footage is a different person.

The police said based on a complaint given by the man’s wife, they have registered an FIR of murder at Kaushambi police station..

“The man seen in CCTV footage is unidentified and we are trying to ascertain how he ties in with the murder, if at all. The flat was not ransacked; but it did seem like someone tried to open the cupboards and wardrobes. The couple has been living in the flat since 2004. We have formed several teams to trace the girl. We are also going through her social media accounts to see if find any clues that point to the unidentified man,” the SP said, adding that the couple adopted the girl legally when she was just a week old.

The police said a forensic team and a dog squad have also visited the crime scene to collect evidence

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