‘Kicked so hard that the child’s neck broke’
Udaipur : Police in Chhoti Sadri block of Pratapgarh district on Monday arrested a 22-year old man who allegedly raped and brutally murdered his eight-year-old girl cousin in Meghpura village three days ago. The accused had a lust for the girl as she was beautiful and on the fateful day he found the opportunity when his wife went to her parent’s home and he knew his aunt and cousins were alone at night. He picked away the girl to a secluded place in jungle where he raped her and when the girl said she would tell everybody home, the accused strangled and kicked hard on the girl’s face to break her neck. He dragged her body from leg and threw inside a dry well. Police had found the girl’s torn body from the eight feet deep well in the wee hours of Saturday.
The incident had sent shockwaves across the district, triggering a firestorm in social media and the opposition condemning the state government for poor law and order. The villagers were so infuriated that they refused to hold the funeral unless the accused was arrested. Later after much conciliation, the funeral was held on Sunday afternoon. Udaipur Range IG Binita Thakur and Pratapgarh SP Chunaram Jat visited the village and instructed to constitute teams that worked non stop to solve the murder mystery.
“Co-incidentally, it was the accused’s father Ranglal Mogya who informed the police that the girl was missing. We rounded up more than fifty suspects in the village one after the other and ended questioning Ghanshyam. We found blood stains on his jacket and some marks on his face” Chhoti Sadri SHO Ravindra Pratap Singh told Udaipur Kiran.
Upon thorough interrogation the accused surrendered. Singh said the accused’s father and the girl’s father were paternal cousins and children were mingled with each other. The accused’s wife had gone to her parents home and the girl’s father had gone to Marwar to buy goats. Ghanshayam was drunk on friday night and he went to his uncle’s home past midnight where he picked up the sleeping girl. “The girl struggled to save herself and scratched on his face. When she threatened to tell the incident to her parents, the accused was terrified and he murdered her by strangling her” the SHO said.