MP man held for rape, murder of 5-year-old

Surat: A labourer from Madhya Pradesh was arrested on Saturday evening for the alleged raping and brutal murder of a five-year-old girl living in his neighbourhood in Hazira on April 30.
The 27-year-old accused Sujit Saket told police that he committed the crime as he had a rift with her father over a petty fight that took place in 2019.
Police said that when the girl had gone to answer nature’s call in the open near her house, Saket bumped into her. He lured the girl by offering money to buy chocolate and took her to an uninhabited room behind their housing colony. Saket admitted to police that he raped and sodomized the girl too. When she started shouting, Saket hit her with a brick on her head and later strangulated her. Saket then dumped her body in bushes behind the room.
The girl’s body was found on April 30 while searching for her when her mother realized that she was missing. The girl’s mother had gone for a bath when she left the house.
While investigating, police questioned several people living in the colony. A few of them pointed out that it could be Saket who was involved in the crime as around 10 days back too he had molested a 12-year-old girl from the colony. Saket was picked up on the same day for questioning during which he broke down and admitted to committing the crime.
On Saturday, after his Covid-19 test turned out to be negative, he was arrested and produced before a special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court on Sunday. Additional public prosecutor Kishore Revaliya said that Saket was remanded to police custody till May 5.
Saket, who hails from Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh, works as a labourer in a company at Hazira.