Search on for severed head of toddler: Police

The Jharkhand police on Thursday said it was still looking for the severed head of a three-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and beheaded by two men in Tatanagar last week.

The torso was found in a plastic bag in a bush under the Telco police station area, around four km from the Tatanagar railway station, on Tuesday night, the police said.

Sniffer dogs have been searching the area to trace the severed head.

The girl was abducted from the railway station on last Friday night, when she was sleeping with her mother and her male companion.

Three persons, including the male companion of the girl's mother, have been arrested in connection with the gruesome rape-murder case.

The girl's mother had eloped with the man from West Bengal's Purulia district and they were staying on the station platform that night.

The woman had lodged a police complaint, saying she suspected that her male companion could be behind the killing of her daughter. His role is being investigated.

Superintendent of Police (Railways) Ehtesham Waquarib said the two other accused were arrested after the CCTV footage of the platform was scanned.

The SP said the two accused, in their 30s, confessed that they beheaded the girl after raping and strangulating her to death.

On the basis of the lead provided by them, the police recovered the girl's torso but the head was not found.

The SP said the two accused were sent to a 14-day judicial custody on Wednesday.

The railway police continued with its massive search operation on Thursday to trace the severed head of the girl.

"We have pressed sniffer dogs into service in the search operation under the Telco police station limits, but the severed head of the girl is yet to be traced," Deputy Superintendent of Police (Railways-HQ) Noor Mustafa Ansari said here.

Asked whether the victim, along with her mother and her companion Monu Mandal, came to the Tatanagar railway station platform on the day of the incident, he said they had come here on July 24 from Jhalda in Purulia district and spent the night on the platform, before leaving for Chaibasa in West Singhbhum district the next morning.

They returned to the Tatanagar railway station platform on July 25 night and were sleeping when the accused abducted the girl and committed the heinous crime, he said.

The police officer said Mandal allegedly introduced himself as Mohammad Sheikh to the woman, who was divorced three years ago, when they first met at Jhalda and at their second meeting, he proposed to marry her.

Mandal's actual identity came to the fore when the police grilled him after the incident, he said, adding that the accused confessed that he was not a Muslim and belonged to Sahibganj district of Jharkhand.

Mandal also told the police that he was already married and had three children, Ansari said.