The Navghar police has arrested a truck driver for allegedly killing and raping an 11-year-old girl, four days after the minor’s body was found dumped on a highway in Mulund.
The Navghar police has arrested a truck driver for allegedly killing and raping an 11-year-old girl, four days after the minor’s body was found dumped on a highway in Mulund.
Police sources revealed that the truck driver raped the minor and then suffocated her to death. He later dumped the body on a highway and fled the scene. The sources said that the accused had seen the girl walking on the highway when he was allegedly in a drunken state. The age of the accused was not available.
“Since it was dark, he kidnapped her and then raped her behind the parked trucks,” said an officer. “The marks on her body suggest that she tried to fight him off. The accused then suffocated her to death and dumped her body between two trucks parked on the highway,” the officer added.
On Saturday, the body of the 11-year-old girl was found near some parked trucks on the highway in the Mulund (east) area. The description of the girl matched that of a missing person’s report lodged with the Navghar police on Friday night, and the family later identified the body.
While the body was sent for post-mortem, sources revealed that there were injury marks on the girl’s body and prima facie investigation showed that she had been raped.
The girl had gone missing around 8 pm on Friday night. “Her father had sent her to buy something from the local pan shop. When she did not return even an hour later, the family got worried and started looking for her and later approached the police to lodge a complaint,” said an officer.
The victim’s family are daily-wage labourers and are not from Mumbai. They had come to the city to earn money and were staying in a shanty on a footpath in Mulund, employed in odd jobs.
“After investigations, we questioned one person whose movements we found to be suspicious. He was later identified as the driver of one of the trucks,” said an officer. The police then arrested the truck driver and he has now been remanded to custody for seven days. The accused has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act.
