BENGALURU: Further investigation into the kidnapping and murder of a six-year-old migrant girl under the Whitefield police limits has revealed that the child was sexually assaulted by the accused before being murdered.
Police sources said the postmortem report confirmed the sexual assault before her death. The accused, Yusuf Meer, has been taken into police custody for 10 days for further interrogation.
The police said Meer came to the city six months ago and was working as a scrap collector. He and the victim’s family were neighbours at Pattandur Agrahara. He had disputes with the victim’s family members before the incident.
On the morning of January 5, he allegedly kidnapped the girl while she was playing in front of her house, sexually assaulted her and later strangled her to death. He then packed the body in a gunny bag, transported it on his scrap-collecting bicycle, and dumped it into a drain near a temple in Nallurahalli before fleeing, the police said.
The police launched a search operation after victim’s parents filed a complaint on January 6, and recovered the girl’s body. The parents initially suspected Yusuf Meer, which helped the police trace and nab him while he was attempting to flee to West Bengal by train.
The preliminary investigation revealed that criminal cases were earlier registered against him in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The police have invoked the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences and are continuing the investigation.