GHAZIABAD: A 9-year-old girl was raped, thrashed and strangled to death at a sugarcane field in Modinagar, allegedly by a neighbour who had abducted her and her 6-year-old cousin on Thursday evening. The body of the 9-year-old was found in the early hours of Friday, covered with sugarcane leaves, after a night-long search by police and family members. The younger girl managed to escape from the 25-year-old’s clutches and was found near a cemetery not too far from the field on Thursday night. Kapil Kumar, who the girls’ families knew well, was spotted near his house in the village around 3am on Friday. Police said he initially pretended that he had spent the whole day at his father-in-law’s funeral in Meerut, but admitted to the crime under sustained questioning. Kapil, whom the girls referred to as “chacha”, directed the police to the body next to a borewell at the field. “He said he raped the elder girl, and covered her mouth to stop her from shouting. While doing so, he strangled her to death. He covered her body with sugarcane leaves,” said Ghaziabad SSP Muniraj G. The accused has been charged for abduction, rape and murder under the IPC and sections of the Pocso Act. On Thursday evening, the girls were playing outside the 9-year-old’s house. “I checked with my brother-in-law when my daughter didn’t come home by 8pm but he didn’t have any idea about their location,” the 9-year-old’s father said. “We started to look for the children and got to know that Kapil had taken them on his cycle around 6.30pm. We couldn’t trace him and filed a police complaint at 8.30pm,” he added. The SSP said over 50 cops from four police stations – Modinagar, Muradnagar, Masuri and Niwari – were deployed to search for the girls, with a dog squad accompanying them. The SSP and SP (rural) Iraj Raja also visited the village. “From some locals, we came to know that Kapil had gone towards the sugarcane farm, which is around 5km from the 9-year-old girl’s house,” the SSP said. Seeing police officers and family members combing the field, the younger girl came out of hiding and ran towards the search party from a cemetery located nearby. Police said she told them: “Uncle maar rahe thhe didi ko, aur didi chilla rahi thi. Main bhaag aayi, mujhe darr lag raha tha (Uncle was hitting didi who kept shouting. I ran because I was scared).” Around 500 metres away, cops found a pair of slippers and the cycle that belonged to the accused. It wasn’t until 3am that the cops got a tip-off that Kapil had been spotted near his house. “A police team was dispatched and he was caught immediately. He cracked during the interrogation. He had returned from Meerut earlier after dropping his wife there,” the police chief said. The 9-year-old’s body was found at 6.30am. “Police found the body under the leaves. The injury marks showed she had been beaten up badly,” the SSP said. The girl’s father said the accused was like a “brother” to him, and their families had been friends for generations. “My father and his father were also good friends. My daughter used to call him ‘chacha jaan’… I had never thought he could do this to us. I don’t know why he did this. I will ask him if I get a chance to see him,” he said. In the FIR filed at Modinagar police station, Kapil has been booked under sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape), 302 (murder) of the IPC and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The girl’s body has been sent for a post-mortem and the report is awaited “I am personally monitoring the case and I have asked the investigating officer to submit the charge sheet within a week. We will direct the case to a fast-track court. Our aim is to get a conviction within a month,” the SSP said. (The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ghaziabad/ghaziabad-neighbour-abducts-rapes-kills-9-year-old-in-modinagar/articleshow/93668824.cms
