Bihar: 5-yr-old girl kidnapped, raped & killed in Siwan

PATNA: Police recovered the body of a five and a half years old girl on the outskirts of a village under Pachrukhi police station area in Siwan district on Tuesday morning.
Pachrukhi police station SHO Dadan Singh said the minor was kidnapped from her residence at around 8.30pm on Monday and was taken to a secluded place. “There, she was raped and then strangled by the accused, Pradeep Singh (40), who is the maternal cousin of the girl’s father,” he said.
The SHO said Pradeep was arrested and on his confession, police recovered the girl’s body from a bush. “In the morning, the villagers tried to lynch Pradeep after freeing him from police custody. The villagers pelted the police team with stones when he was being taken to the police station. A few police personnel protecting him were injured. One of the two police vehicles was also damaged as the irate mob smashed its windscreen and window panes by stones,” he said.
Dadan said there was a shraddh in the relation of the girl’s family at the village and her mother had gone there to attend the rituals while leaving her alone at home. “Pradeep had also come to the village two days back to attend the same shraddh. Villagers suspected Pradeep’s involvement when the girl was found missing from her home Monday night,” he said.
The SHO said Pradeep, a native of village Sugahi under Siswan police station area of Siwan district, is accused of killing his wife by hanging her and had badly injured her brother with a sharp-edged object. “His nature was known to the villagers and that’s why they first suspected his hand behind the kidnapping of the minor girl,” he said.
The SHO said the body was handed over to the family after postmortem. Pradeep’s medical examination has also been conducted. He said further investigations were going on in the case.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)