Missing since Saturday evening, four-year-old girl found dead

A 4-year-old girl was found dead on Sunday morning three kilometres from her home in Ghaziabad, a day after she went missing while playing outside with her siblings

A 4-year-old girl was found dead on Sunday morning three kilometres from her home in Ghaziabad, a day after she went missing while playing outside with her siblings.

The police have formed four teams to solve the case. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Investigators think the girl was killed somewhere else and the body was dumped at the location. The girl’s body had several injury marks, said police officers working on the case, adding that though the cause of death is yet to be determined, rape has not been ruled out.

The girl had been living with a relative since her father passed away last January, officers said. Her mother, who has not yet been traced by the police, left the family soon afterward.

The girl vanished at 3pm on Saturday while coming home with the relative’s son and daughter following tuition classes, according to Sahibabad assistant commissioner of police Bhaskar Verma. She vanished as the children were traveling through a JJ cluster, said investigators.

“The children thought that the girl had gone away to play with other children in the JJ cluster. But when she didn’t return home by 6pm, the family members started a search. They contacted us at 10am on Sunday. Immediately, a team arrived at the spot. Around 11am, we received a phone call from a resident of the area about a girl’s corpse lying in the bushes. Immediately, senior police officers, including the deputy commissioner of police, reached the spot and the family members were called to identify the corpse,” said Verma.

She said four teams have been formed to solve the case. “One team is reviewing every CCTV clip within a kilometer of the scene, while another team is questioning residents. Other teams are also working to solve the case while considering all possibilities,” Sharma said.

A first information report under Indian Penal Code section 302 (punishment for murder) has been filed against unidentified individuals based on the complaint by the girl’s family.

In a similar incident in December last year, a five-year-old child was discovered dead in a municipal forest park in Sahibabad, just a short distance from the deceased girl’s home. Nearly a week later, the police arrested a drug-addicted labourer in connection with the crime. Investigation showed that the girl had been kidnapped from outside her home and sexually assaulted.