Body of 5-­yr-­old girl found in bag in Ghaziabad, cabbie suspect

Family suspects sexual assault but police say they would be known only after a post-mortem report.

A five-year-old girl, who had gone missing on August 2, was dead and stuffed inside a plastic bag on the adjacent roof of the first-floor house of her uncle in Ghaziabad’s Khoda locality on Saturday.

Ghaziabad police officers investigate the place where a 5-year-old girl was found dead in Khoda in Ghaziabad on August 04, 2018.(Sakib Ali/ HT photo)

The family said they suspect sexual assault but police said it would be known only after the post-mortem report. However, the cause of death as conveyed verbally by the district health department to Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad, is smothering.

The girl studied in LKG at a private school and went missing around 8pm on August 2. Her family said their neighbours alerted them on Saturday morning after they spotted a bag on the roof of the adjacent house.

“There were lot of flies around the bag and my daughter’s body was found inside the bag. The house belongs to my elder brother. The police took the bag away,” said the girl’s father.

The family said that they suspect a 32-year-old driver, who operates a cab through a cab aggregator.

“The driver was our tenant and used to live with his family. Two months ago, his family returned to their native place while the driver came back to the city on Sunday. He has been missing since the bag was discovered,” girl’s father added.

A relative of the victim said that the body of the girl was found without clothes.

“It raises suspicion of sexual assault, but we are waiting for the post-mortem report. When we scanned the nearby CCTV footage, a man was seen around the girl. The driver, who was helping the locals to find her, is missing now,” the girl’s relative said.

The Ghaziabad police said that the efforts to find the driver is on.

“Our teams are trying to establish contact and trying to trace the driver. Police conducted massive search. The roof where the body was found was also searched on August 2 and 3. But the body was found only on the morning of August 4. It seems someone placed the body after seeing hectic search by police and locals,” said SSP Vaibhav Krishna.

The family on August 3 had lodged an FIR for abduction. The cops said that they are questioning the brother of the driver about his whereabouts and for any clues.

The family and the locals gathered in protest on NH24 and were dispersed only after the police assured of speedy probe and ensuring justice for the five-yearold.

The family of the girl blamed the police for their lax investigation. “We hired an auto-rickshaw and mounted a loudspeaker for public announcement. We realised that our daughter is in trouble when she did not return home even after August 3 afternoon. Also, she knew the name of her parents as well as the address. The police assured that she will be found. She could have been found if not for the police laxity,” the father said.

The girl’s body was recovered around 10am on Saturday. However, there was a delay in arranging the documents required for the post-mortem on behalf of the Khoda police.