Cab driver held for rape and murder of 5-year-old girl in Ghaziabad

The minor girl was a LKG student. Police sources said the cab driver was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime.

The Ghaziabad police late Monday arrested a 32-year-old cab driver, the prime suspect in the sexual assault and murder case of a five-year-old girl in Ghaziabad.

Ghaziabad police officers investigate the place where a 5-year-old girl was found dead in Khoda in Ghaziabad on August 4.(Sakib Ali/ HT photo)

The girl, who went missing around 8pm on August 2, was smothered to death and her body stuffed into a plastic bag, which was left on the roof of her uncle’s house, adjacent to her own, in Khoda on August 4.

“The girl’s body was found in a decomposed state. Her legs had contusion while there were injury marks on her lips. Clothes on her lower body were not in order,” a police officer had said.

The police said cab driver Deepak, from Agra, was a tenant of the girl’s father. The accused was involved in the search for the missing girl since the night of August 2. The bag was recovered on August 4 by which time he had fled.

“Our teams have picked up Deepak and he was formally arrested on Monday night. He has accepted his involvement in the crime. His questioning will reveal further details,” Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad, said.

Police sources said the cab driver was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime.

The post-mortem reports of the girl, a LKG student, concluded that she died of smothering while the police on the basis of the findings of the report, added IPC Section for rape and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act to the FIR.

The police also sections of abduction, murder and destruction of evidence to the investigation.

A series of forensic examination of girl’s house had led police conclude that the body was never taken out of the house and blood along with other biological material were found in different parts of her house.

The Ghaziabad police, which reconstructed the crime scene last night, found bloodstains on the floor and the walls where Deepak was living. They also found a bedsheet with bloodstains bundled in a corner of the roof.

In another case, related to the murder of nine-year-old boy in Muradnagar, the police have added IPC section of 377 (unnatural sex) to the ongoing investigation.

The body of the boy was discovered from the sugarcane fields near his house on the morning of August 4. The boy was found strangled and had several injury marks on his face and other body parts.

“We have added the IPC Section 377 to the case investigation. The boy was subject to sexual assault before he was murdered. We have three to four suspects on our radar and our teams will soon work out the case. The suspects are known to boy’s family,” Krishna said.