Man held for raping, murdering 5-year-old step-daughter

A 32-year-old man was arrested today for raping his 5-year-old step daughter over a period of time and murdering her, police said.
The incident came to light yesterday, after the accused Mahendran had informed his second wife, who had gone to Tiruchirapalli, that her daughter suffered breathlessness and was admitted to the Government Hospital and died some time later, they said.
The woman, who returned immediately, grew suspicious after noticing injury marks on her daughter's body and lodged a complaint with police, who registered a case of death under mysterious circumstance, they said.
The postmortem revealed that the girl was sexually assaulted several times, based on which Mahendran was taken into custody last evening, they said.

The accused used to sexually torture his step daughter, when his wife was away, police said.
After Mahendran confessed to having committed the rape and murder of the girl a few days ago, during the interrogation, he was arrested today and produced before the Mahila Court, which remanded him to judicial custody, they added.