Skeleton of 4-year-old girl found in Gwalior, second victim in city linked to Gurugram serial killer

Gurugram: The skeleton of a four-year-old girl was dug up by police in Gwalior on Monday near the railway station during the probe into crimes committed by Sunil, who has allegedly raped and murdered at least nine girls in Gurugram, Delhi, Jhansi and the Madhya Pradesh city.



This is the second time the remains of a child have been dug up in Gwalior since Sunil was arrested — last week, nails and bones of a girl were found in an area under Kampoo police station. Police began searches based on the spots identified by Sunil — it is suspected the Kampoo victim was a three-year-old who Sunil had raped and murdered in June 2016.

The skeleton dug up on Monday, in the area that comes under Inderganj police station, is believed to be of a four-year-old girl. The way she was allegedly murdered is very similar to Sunil’s modus operandi — the girl had gone missing from a bhandara near Gwalior railway station in October 2014 and allegedly raped and killed. Her head was crushed with a stone. The manhunt for Sunil began after a three-year-old girl was found in a Gurugram slum on November 12 with her head smashed.

Like in Gurugram, a special investigation team has been formed in Gwalior under SP Navneet Bhasin to investigate the cases. Delhi Police too is looking into four cases in which minor girls have gone missing and not been found yet, in the Chandni Chowk, Moti Bagh and Vasant Vihar police station areas. Investigators said Delhi Police could seek custody of Sunil for further investigation into those cases. Gwalior police is also likely to seek production remand.

“Bones, nails and a few other remains have been recovered from the places identified by Sunil. Forensic teams have collected samples and sent it to the lab for further investigation,” Bhasin told TOI, adding they had formed an SIT to investigate cases of missing children and a possible connection with Sunil.

After arresting Sunil on November 19, police had said he had admitted to raping and killing at least nine girls — three in Gurugram, four in Delhi, one in Gwalior and one in Jhansi. So far, the victim has been identified or remains of a body have been found in six cases — four in Gurugram and two in Gwalior. There’s just one survivor so far who police know of — a girl, then 5, who was kidnapped and raped and then abandoned near Sikanderpur metro station in Gurugram.

Police is Gurugram are also looking at another old case — of a four-year-old's body that was found near Vyapar Kendra in Sushant Lok. The girl was last seen at a bhandara near Vyapar Kendra.

Jhansi police, meanwhile, are preparing list of missing children who had disappeared from bhandaras in the last five-six years. Sunil (20), who led a vagabond life, survived on free meals at bhandaras, and targeted girls who visited these places. His earliest known crime is the Sikanderpur attack in 2013. “He started committing crimes when he was a teenager and gained confidence as he never got caught,” said a senior police officer associated with the investigation. He was never identified because he kept changing locations and didn’t carry a cellphone.

The November 12 rape and murder, however, was different — Sunil was captured by CCTV cameras at a housing society near the slum from where he picked up the three-year-old. That was the first time police had a face to aid their search. His family lived in the same slum. The other pieces of the jigsaw gradually started falling into place. Sunil was finally traced to Jhansi and arrested there a week later.