ANGUL: The alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old girl near Pidhakhaman village within Nisha police limits has sent shock waves across Angul district.
Decomposed body of the girl, the lone child of a daily wager, was recovered from a forested patch near Pidhakhaman on Saturday. The girl had reportedly gone missing on last Thursday.
Sources said the kid was playing outside her house when she mysteriously disappeared at around 2 pm on Thursday. Her family members launched a frantic search but to no avail. Unable to trace her, they lodged a missing complaint with Nisha police the next day.
Basing on the complaint, police registered a case and started an investigation. On Saturday, a villager spotted the minor’s decomposed body lying inside a forest around 200 metre from Pidhakhaman.
On being informed, a police team rushed to the village for investigation. Angul SP Rahul Jain, sub-divisional police officer RK Mahalik and Nisha IIC Bibekananda Mahanta also reached the spot to take stock of the situation. Later, the dog squad and scientific team were roped in to collect evidence from the spot. The girl’s body was also sent to the hospital for postmortem.
IIC Mahanta said, “Police have confirmed that it is a case of murder. However, we are waiting for the autopsy report to determine if she was raped. A suspect has been detained in this connection and is being grilled.”
SP Jain said initially, police registered a kidnapping case. Later, it was turned into a murder case after the child’s body was found. A youth of nearby Jereng village has been detained and police are questioning him. “A DSP-ranked officer has been entrusted with the investigation of the case. Police will file the charge-sheet within 15 days,” he said.
Villagers suspect that the girl was raped and murdered. “We demand stringent action against those involved in the heinous crime,” they added.