Navi Mumbai: A 9-year-old school girl, the youngest of the four daughters of a mason, whose kidnapping case was registered at Turbhe police station after her mother lodged her missing complaint on Saturday, was found murdered on Tuesday morning. Her body, dumped in the forest area near Bavkhaleshwar temple in Pawane MIDC area, bore signs of sexual assault.Turbhe police have arrested the accused using technical expertise and after scanning CCTV camera footage of the locality. Police have invoked section of the BNS for murder along with the Pocso Act.The victim, a class 5 student at NMMC school, resided with her parents and three elder sisters in Indiranagar area’s chawl house in Turbhe. She had stepped out to play in her locality on Saturday around 3.30pm after returning home from school, but went missing thereafter.On Saturday around 7pm, when the victim girl’s mother, a contract worker in a private company in Turbhe MIDC, returned home from work, her husband and three daughters were at home. When she inquired about her youngest daughter, her elder daughter, aged 16, informed her that the girl had gone out to play at around 3.30pm after having lunch. As the girl did not return home until late evening, the family searched for her in the locality and throughout the Turbhe MIDC area, but could not trace her. Consequently, a missing person complaint was lodged after midnight on Sunday.Sunil Shinde, senior inspector of Turbhe police station, said, “A special team was formed to trace the missing girl. CCTV footage showed the suspect travelling with her in a shared auto towards Mahape Road and later walking with her along the road. The victim’s parents identified him and said he was an acquaintance. Using technical inputs, the police tracked and arrested the accused from Indiranagar on Tuesday morning. He lived in the same locality and worked as a daily-wage labourer.”He confessed to offering the minor girl eatables, sexually assaulting her and then strangling her before dumping her body in the forest area in Pawane MIDC. The accused and the victim’s parents did not have any previous enmity.On Tuesday, the accused was produced before the Belapur special court which remanded him to police custody till Oct 19.
