Man held for raping, killing 5-year-old girl

Mumbai: The Mahim police arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the sexual assault and murder of a 5-year-old girl a day after the incident took place. The girl was kidnapped from the footpath, while she was asleep with her family, in the wee hours of Thursday and her body was found metres away from the spot later in the day.

The arrested man was identified as Hasan Shaikh, who also resided on the same footpath with his family, including three daughters, police said. The officers added that the accused is a pervert and he told the police that he decide to target the girl after he allegedly saw her naked on couple of occasions.

At around 2am on Thursday when the family was asleep, Shaikh sneaked into the shanty on LJ Road and abducted the kid. The probe revealed that the girl was kidnapped at around 2.10am and he was captured by one of the CCTV cameras while escaping with her.

“He took the victim behind a shop at an isolated spot and sexually assaulted her. He then panicked that she would reveal about the incident to her parents and hence he strangled her to death,” said an officer of Mahim police station.

The accused dumped her body at a distance from the spot and she was found around 10am after the police had begun a search for her. The body was taken to a hospital where autopsy revealed that she was sexually assaulted.

The police then scanned the CCTV camera footage of the spot and found the accused captured while fleeing with the girl. On interrogating Shaikh, he spilled the beans and revealed about the incident.

Shaikh has been booked for kidnapping, rape and murder as per the provisions of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.