1 held for minor's rape, murder

Karnal, August 16

Hours after the rape and murder of a six-year-old, the Panipat police cracked the case and arrested the accused allegedly involved in the crime.

The victim was kidnapped from a park on August 15 and later her body was found in the bushes near a nullah.

The accused was identified as Ishwar, a native of Piri Chamoli in Uttrakhand and presently living as a tenant in Krishna Garden Colony. He was a worker at a dhaba at Floura Chowk and had been working there for five months.

He was produced in court and taken on a day’s police remand.

Shashank Kumar Sawan, Superintendent of Police (SP), Panipat, said the police would file a challan soon for fast-tracking the case. He said the police would put the case in the category of “Chinhit Apradh” and the court would be requested to award capital punishment to the accused.

The SP said a resident of Sector 29 had filed a complaint with the Chandani Bagh police station that his six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son were playing in a park at around 9am on Monday. After some time, his son told them that a man took his sister with him by offering biscuits to her.

The family members, along with other residents, launched a search campaign and found the body of the girl lying in bushes along a nullah in Sector 25. A case under Section 302, 365, 376, 201 of the IPC and 6 of the POCSO Act was registered at the police station.