A 20-year-old man has been detained for supposedly kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 10-year-old girl by cutting her throat before disposing of her body from the bathroom window of his residence in Thane, Maharashtra, police reported on Tuesday.
The incident took place on the night of April 7, as reported by news agency PTI quoting the police.
The suspect is accused of enticing the victim, who lived in a nearby building, by giving her toys, taking her to his sixth-floor home in Thane’s Samrat Nagar where he sexually assaulted her and subsequently slit her throat with a sharp instrument.
Following this, he moved the girl’s body to the bathroom of his house and pushed it out through an open window, PTI quoted the official as saying. A police investigation team searched every apartment in the building and discovered a bathroom window in the man’s residence open from which he allegedly disposed of the girl, according to the official.
The event was reported at 11:48 PM on Monday to the disaster management cell of the Thane Municipal Corporation, as stated by its chief Yasin Tadvi.
On Tuesday, the police initially filed a case under sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or providing false information to shield the offender) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the individual, who lives in the Thakurpada area of Mumbra, a police official mentioned.
Autopsy Confirms Rape
An autopsy was performed on the young girl, confirming that she was sexually assaulted and her throat was cut with a sharp weapon, according to the police official.
Based on the findings of the autopsy report, the police incorporated additional BNS sections 96 (procuration of a child), 137 (2) (kidnapping), 64 (rape), 64 (I) (raping a woman unable to give consent), 65 (2) (rape on a woman under 12 years of age), and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or providing false information to shield the offender), he noted.
As per Yasin Tadvi, chief of the Thane Municipal Corporation’s disaster management cell, the girl, who did not reside in the building, was discovered lying in a vertical duct that ran through the structure under uncertain circumstances.
Several women heard a loud thud and informed the police, as mentioned in the PTI report.
Emergency services, including personnel from Mumbra police station, fire brigade teams, the regional disaster management cell, and a private ambulance, arrived at the scene and initiated a rescue operation.
Despite facing difficulties due to the narrow nature of the shaft, fire brigade officials managed to retrieve the child, who was subsequently taken to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa, where medical professionals confirmed her death upon arrival, Tadvi stated.
