Missing five-year-old girl found murdered, police suspect she was raped

At least six teams of the Ghaziabad police are searching for unidentified assailants who allegedly murdered and possibly raped a five-year-old girl who went missing from outside her home on Thursday afternoon

At least six teams of the Ghaziabad police are searching for unidentified assailants who allegedly murdered and possibly raped a five-year-old girl who went missing from outside her home on Thursday afternoon. The police said the child’s body was discovered around Friday noon in the fields near her home in a locality under the jurisdiction of the Sahibabad police station. Although the autopsy report is yet to come, police said all indications point to the possibility of the child being raped before being killed.

Missing five-year-old girl found murdered, police suspect she was raped

The girl, the second of three children, had gone outside her home to play around 2.30pm on Thursday. She later went missing and a hectic search by police and her family members proved futile. The police said the body was recovered from the fields, about 30 metres from her house, on Friday noon.

“After she went missing on Thursday, we launched a search along with locals and lost no time in altering the police. They immediately registered a missing person complaint and roped in teams to search for my daughter. My neighbours and I, and the police teams, searched for her the entire night and we returned home around 4.30am Friday. Thereafter, the police continued with the search and discovered her body,” the girl’s father said.

The police said they combed through the locality and also the city forest area, a 100 hectare area with thick vegetation.

“When I saw the body at the post mortem house, her lower garments were missing. All physical signs point to her being sexually assaulted before being killed. The body was sent for an autopsy and police are still searching for the suspects,” the father said.

The girl’s uncle claimed that had the police used a dog squad, the child could have been traced.

“Although the police helped us, they did not show us the body after it was discovered and took it straight to the post-mortem house. We want speedy justice for our daughter and the culprits must be traced at the earliest,” the uncle said.

The police said they registered a missing person complaint at Sahibabad police station on Thursday and added more sections after the body was discovered on Friday.

“We have now added IPC section 376 (rape) and 302 (murder) besides levying provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. The section for rape has been added considering the circumstances in which the body was found . The autopsy report is awaited to confirm this. We have formed at least six teams to trace the as yet unidentified suspects,” said Gyanendra Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (city 2), adding that the girl was possibly strangled to death.

In a similar incident on November 20, an 11-year-old girl was kidnapped and later murdered in a locality under the jurisdiction of Nandgram police station in Ghaziabad. Her body was discovered two days later in Bulandshahr and the police arrested four persons in connection with the case.