7-yr-old girl raped, murdered

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 9

A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped and then murdered by a 35-year-old man at Fauji Colony late this night. The partly naked body of the girl was recovered near the rented accommodation of the accused.

He tried to escape after committing the crime but the local residents nabbed him and thrashed him.

The incident came to light at 9 pm when the girl’s parents arrived home and found their daughter lying in a pool of blood.

Her father, who is a migrant labourer and native of Bihar, said he, along with his wife, had gone to the market at 7 pm to buy vegetables and they had left their daughter at home alone. “When we returned home, we could not find our daughter in the room. When we started searching for her, we were shocked to see that she, partly naked, was lying in front of the room of Mast Ram (35), also a migrant, adjoining their rented accommodation. We immediately rushed her to Civil Hospital where the doctors declared her brought dead,” he said.

Sources said the deceased’s body had scratches seemed to be inflicted with nails and teeth and some visible injury marks which indicated that she was physically assaulted by the accused.

Kuldeep Sharma, ADCP, who reached the spot to investigate the case, said as per the preliminary investigation, the girl was seemingly first raped by the accused and then killed, may be by strangling or by other means. “The exact cause of her death will be known only after the postmortem and viscera reports are received by the police. However, the doctors have confirmed that the girl was raped by the accused,” the ADCP added.

A murder case has been registered at the Focal Point police station.