Kin demand death for rapist'

Mumbai: The mother of the nine-year-old girl who was found raped and murdered in Juhu has said that she would not perform her last rites until the Juhu police assures her that the accused would receive capital punishment.

The parents of the victim have not eaten or slept properly since their daughter went missing on Thursday. According to victim’s mother, the girl had been sent to bring tea and when she didn’t return an hour later, they went to the Juhu police station — which is not far from their house — but the investigation into the matter began four hours later.

Meanwhile, the Juhu police on Saturday arrested family members of the accused, including his wife and mother, for preventing the police from performing their official duty.

Soon after the dead body of the girl was found in a gutter near her house, the police begun scanning CCTV footage of the area and saw the accused, Vadivel ‘Gundappa’ Devendra, taking the victim to a room.

According to the police, the accused had raped and murdered the girl but waited till around 3 am to dump her body in the gutter. He was then arrested from his residence.

The police on Saturday arrested Devendra’s wife Muskan, brother Chelmuttu alias Anna, sister-in-law Banu and mother Ramai for allegedly criminally intimidating and wrongfully restraining officers when it visited his house Nehru Nagar slum.

The police have claimed that while Muskan and Ramai blocked the door, Chelmuttu and Banu picked up an iron rod and bamboo stick and threatened to kill them if they entered the house. Following this, a larger police force was called and the accused were arrested.

According to the police, Devendra’s family had allegedly threatened to take revenge on the victim’s family for falsely implicating him.

Devendra had been arrested for the rape of another minor girl and was released around six months back.

According to her mother, she first saw him staring at her daughter on her birthday on March 17. She was dressed up and was taken to her grandmother’s residence near Devendra’s home.

Though the victim’s mother knew Devendra was earlier arrested in a rape case she didn’t suspect he would target her daughter.    

On Saturday, locals had blocked the road in front of the Juhu police station to protest against the alleged rape and murder.