Faridabad: 5-year-old abducted, murdered by neighbour; accused held

Faridabad, Dec 9 (PTI) A five-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by a man from the same neighbourhood here, after she was abducted on Monday evening, police said.

There is also a possibility that the girl was raped, but it will only be ascertained after the postmortem examination, they said, adding that the accused has been arrested.

According to the police, the deceased girl -- a nursery student -- was a native of Bihar and lived with her family in Faridabad.

According to the girl's mother, she was with her daughter on their terrace until around 4:00 pm, while her son was watching TV downstairs. Around 4:30 pm, she sent the girl downstairs to tell something to her younger brother.

Subsequently, the girl went downstairs and spoke to her brother. When she was not seen shortly after, the family thought she might be playing nearby.

However, when she was absent for a long time, they searched the surrounding area and visited neighbours to find the girl. Even after searching for nearly two hours, the girl could not be found, the mother said in her statement to the police.

The family then checked CCTV footage from a medical store nearby, in which the girl was seen walking hand-in-hand with a neighbour, Pintu (36), a native of Bihar. When they tried to contact Pintu on his mobile phone, it was found switched off. This raised suspicion and the girl's father registered a complaint at Palla police station, officials said.

Subsequently, an FIR was registered and the police arrested Pintu from Harkesh Nagar area around 9:00pm on Monday.

During interrogation, Pintu confessed to abducting the girl and, on his instance, the police recovered the girl's body from the bushes behind a farmhouse on Tilpat Road, police said, adding that the body has been sent for a postmortem examination.

"We are questioning the accused after taking him on a two-day police remand after he was produced in a city court on Tuesday," a Faridabad police spokesperson said. PTI COR ARB ARB