BENGALURU: In a dramatic turn of events, a nine-year-old girl, initially believed to be dead after her neighbour falsely confessed to her rape and murder, was found safe and unharmed after a gripping four-day investigation.
Pooja (name changed), the daughter of a ragpicker from Goripalya, went missing when her parents entrusted her to Puneeth, a neighbour and another ragpicker, who had always treated her like family. On September 18, the day she went missing, Puneeth told Pooja he would take her to visit his sister in Rajajinagar. Her parents allowed her to go.
However, the next day, Puneeth returned without Pooja. When confronted by her parents, he claimed he had no idea where she was. Her parents filed a missing person’s complaint at the JJ Nagar police station.
The police summoned Puneeth, and he told them that he had taken Pooja to Mandya, but got down at Shettihalli. He then falsely confessed to raping and killing her, claiming he had disposed of the body at an onion market in Mandya. But the police remained sceptical as he was intoxicated at the time of questioning, and continued their investigation.
The police found out that Pooja with Puneeth had boarded a train to Mysuru from the Kengeri Railway Station. The police then brought him back for questioning and this time, he randomly picked up a piece of cloth from the ground, claiming he used it to smother Pooja after raping her.
The police, still wary of Puneeth’s claims, ramped up their investigation and soon made a crucial breakthrough. They found out that the train he claimed to have taken was an express that did not stop at Shettihalli and had stopped only at Mandya before reaching Mysuru.
The police continued their probe and circulated Pooja’s picture across all railway stations. Just when hopes were dimming, the police received a call, saying a girl had been found alone in a train coach in Mysuru on the same day Pooja had gone missing. The Mysuru Railway Police, who had taken her to a local shelter -- Balamandir, informed the Bengaluru police. When Pooja was finally located, she revealed that Puneeth had treated her kindly during the journey.
The police conducted tests on Pooja and confirmed that she was safe and was not raped. After learning that she was born in Bengaluru in 2014, the police checked all hospital records and obtained her birth certificate from a now-closed hospital in Vijaynagar. They enrolled her for an Aadhaar card and are now searching for a school to help her start anew.