Khan has been charged with the offence of abetment to suicide in an FIR filed at the Sabarmati Riverfront West police station. A day after a six-year-old girl was reported missing from her house at Hallo Majra, she was found murdered near the area’s cremation ground Saturday. A team of crime branch apprehended a 12-year-old boy in connection with the crime on the basis of a CCTV footage, which showed the girl riding pillion on a bicycle being paddled by the underage boy. The apprehended juvenile, who was reportedly known to the victim for over a month, accepted his involvement in the crime.
The minor girl had gone missing around 3:30 pm on Friday. The victim’s body was found on Saturday morning in the forest near the cremation ground, in a half-naked state, with grievous head injuries. Police officials said they suspect that the victim was sexually assaulted before being murdered, however, it will be ascertained after the post-mortem examination.
Meanwhile, demanding the arrest of the accused in the crime, hundreds of agitated residents of Hallo Majra took to the streets and blocked the Dakshin Marg near the Hallo Majra roundabout on Saturday. The protesters raised slogans against the Chandigarh police and alleged that despite being timely informed, the police had failed to save the girl. The UT police used mild lathi-charge on the protesters to disperse them.
The relatives of the victim said that she had gone missing around 3.30 pm on Friday, following which her family members had searched for her for about one-and-a-half hours, and on failing to find her, they had approached the Sector 31 Police Station and lodged a complaint. The relatives maintained that after filing the complaint, a search operation was launched at Hallo Majra and more than 100 houses in the area were thoroughly searched. Police said the search operation was suspended late in the night on Friday and resumed early next morning.
Police sources said that the CCTV footage of the victim riding pillion on a bicycle was found in the afternoon on Saturday. ASP Shruti Arora, SHO PS 31, Inspector Narinder Patial, along with other police officers, visited the scene of crime. A forensic team from the CFSL also collected samples of the blood stains on the spot. Police said that spot inspection revealed that the accused hit the girl on her head with a heavy object. Sources said the juvenile had taken the minor girl to the forest area near the cremation ground, where he had committed the crime and later returned to his house.
The case of missing child was filed at Sector 31 Police Station on Friday night and the murder charges were added to the FIR on Saturday morning.