BHADRAK: Chandbali in Bhadrak district continued to be on the boil as protests against the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl escalated even after police arrested the prime accused on Wednesday.
The accused, 30-year-old Bablu Das of Rampalli village under Chandbali police limits, was nabbed from the Jagatsinghpur district.
According to police, Bablu --a married man with a kid-- sexually assaulted and strangulated the girl to death on Tuesday evening.
Bhadrak SP Manoj Rout said the accused was known to the victim. Finding the girl alone, he lured her to an isolated area and sexually assaulted her. When the girl cried in pain and threatened to tell her mother about the incident, the accused strangulated her to death with his hands out of fear.
The SP said after committing the crime, Bablu returned to his village and spent the night in his house. When public anger escalated after the recovery of the girl's body, the accused fled to his in-laws' house in Jagatsinghpur in a bus on Wednesday morning.
The 10-year-old girl was returning home from school on Tuesday when she reportedly went missing. Her blood-stained body with injuries on her private parts was recovered from a bush behind the panchayat office in Baligaon village in the evening, sparking tension in the area. In the night, irate locals staged protests at Baligaon square and blocked the Akhandalamani road, burning effigies and demanding swift and exemplary punishment for the culprit.
Initially, five persons including four family members of a local were detained for questioning. Police suspected Bablu's role in the crime after a sniffer dog led investigators to his house in Rampalli village. Preliminary investigation confirmed that the child was sexually assaulted before being murdered.
After news of the accused's involvement in the crime spread, enraged locals stormed his house in Rampalli village and demolished it. The SP said though tensions prevailed in the area, the situation has been brought under control. Four platoons of armed police have been deployed in the area.
The accused is being interrogated and his medical examination will be conducted on Thursday. Subsequently, he will be produced in court, police said.
Meanwhile, the BJD and Congress have called for a bandh in Chandbali on Thursday to protest against the incident.