Youth takes 5-year-old for puja, rapes & murders her

PANCHKULA: An 18-year-old youth allegedly raped and murdered a five-year-old girl near a private school in Sector 14 on Monday.

Police said the accused was a neighbour of the girl. He went to her house and asked her family if he could take the girl with him to his house for a prayer ceremony in which young girls are worshipped and served food. He, instead, took her to an empty plot and raped her, police said. Later, he allegedly smashed her head with a brick. He was later arrested.
When the girl did not return home by 10am, her family members started looking for her. Suman, the mother of the girl, lodged a complaint with the police, informing them about the youth. A few minutes later, the mother received a phone call from an acquaintance telling her that the girl was lying dead in the empty plot next to the school.
Family members of the girl and a police team went to the empty plot covered by an 8-foot wall. They scaled the boundary wall and found the girl lying in a pool of blood. A stone with bloodstains was recovered from the spot.
Panchkula deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Kamaldeep Goyal said, “Prima facie the girl was raped before the murder. The alleged accused in the case has been taken into custody. A stone with bloodstains was recovered from the spot and might have been used in the murder. Full details will be known after the post-mortem.” Police said the accused is a drug addict and might be under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime.
“We are also investigating how the accused took the girl to the plot and whether more than one person was involved,” the DCP said.
A forensic team took samples from the spot. A case under Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections of Pocso (Protection of Child from Sexual Offences) Act was registered at the Sector 14 police station.