Man who raped, strangled five year old in Ghaziabad arrested

The man, who raped a five-year-old child and strangled her on August 2 night in Ghaziabad, has been arrested, police said on Tuesday.

After choking the girl to death, the accused had packed her body in a bag and dumped on the roof of a neighbour in Khoda locality of the city bordering Delhi.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vaibhav Krishna said that late on August 2, the parents of the victim had lodged a complaint stating that their five-year-old child had been abducted by some unidentified person.

The police recovered the body next day, on August 3, from the roof of the adjacent house. It had been wrapped first in a cloth bag, then thrust into a gunny bag and that gunny bag was kept in a plastic bag.

The autopsy report confirmed that the child had been raped before being strangled.

During their investigation, the police found that a person staying as a tenant in the house had been missing since August 3, which was very unusual, as he was otherwise said to be very friendly with the house owner.

On August 7, the police spotted the tenant in the locality and picked him up. After recording his confessional statement, he was arrested, the SSP said.

The accused -- Davendra Thakur, a resident of Agra -- worked as a driver for Ola and Uber cabs owned by a Baghpat resident. His wife had gone to her parents about 15 days ago.

He told the police that on August 2, consumed liquor and watched porn videos on his mobile phone. In the meantime, the child came to his room. On seeing the child, he tried raping her. But when she started crying loudly, he killed her by strangulating and wrapped the body in the bag, SSP Krishna said.

For two days, he remained with her parents, pretending to help them trace the child. But on August 3, he went to stay somewhere in Delhi.

The police have booked Thakur under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Child from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Krishna said the child was an LKG student of a school in Khoda. Her father Mukesh works in a private company in Noida.

--IANS

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