Eight-year-old girl raped, murdered by labourer in Waghodiya

Vadodara: An eight-year-old girl, daughter of a labourer, was found raped and murdered at a farm near Maganpura village in Waghodiya taluka on Saturday. A labourer from Chhota Udepur Sanjay Bariya (24), was arrested for the crime, a few hours after the girl’s body was found.
The girl was kidnapped on Friday night from the construction site of Eklavya School where her parents are working as labourers. The school is managed by the Goraj-based Muni Seva Ashram. According to police the girl’s father had gone to his village in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh while her mother was at the construction site.
On Friday night, when some labourers from Chhota Udepur and Madhya Pradesh, who were also working at the construction, were fighting over some petty issue, the girl’s mother went there to check. After she returned, she did not find her daughter and checked around but on not finding her, she approached Waghodiya police.
Cops from Waghodiya, Dabhoi, Shinor, local crime branch and others formed seperate teams and questioned the labourers and conducted search in the surrounding areas. During search, they found the girl’s body and it was also learnt that she had been raped.
A police official said that after initial questioning they rounded up some labourers including Bariya. During interrogation Bariya broke down and admitted to his crime. “The girl’s mother told us that it was Bariya who had informed her about the fight among the labourers, but he did not go with her. Later when the woman was searching for her daughter again Bariya was not around so his role was suspicious from the beginning,” said a police official.
Cops said that Bariya is married and has a child, but his wife lives in Rajasthan.