Bhubaneswar minor murder case: Accused arrested

Bhubaneswar: A man, who stabbed a five-year-old girl to death at a slum, has been arrested from Rahama Railway station in Odisha's Jagatpursingh district, police said on Wednesday.

The accused was arrested on Tuesday night when he was trying to flee to Chennai.

The accused, 25-year-old Ghania Das, immediate neighbour of the victim, killed the girl by slitting her throat in a slum under Airfield police limits late Monday night.

"Monday evening, I went inside the house for some work while my daughter was playing with her toys near our residence. I found her missing when I came outside after a few minutes. A local told me that the accused had taken her away," said the victim's mother.

When the family members asked Das about the girl, he pushed them away and fled. Later, the victim's family recovered the bloodstained body wrapped in a blanket under Das' bed in his house. The victim's mother had alleged that the accused killed the girl after raping her.

A case was registered case under kidnapping and murder charges, said Saumendra Priyadarshi, the Commissioner of Police.

"During preliminary investigation, it was found that the accused had brought the girl to his house with the ulterior motive to commit sexual assault. However, when the victim's family members started searching for her, he killed the girl," the Commissioner of Police said.

"We launched a manhunt constituting six teams to catch him. The accused first went to his in-law's house at Balikuda, from there to Borikina and finally police collared him near Rahama Station late Tuesday night," Priyadarshi said.

The Police will also appoint a special Public Prosecutor to ensure the early completion of the trial, Priyadarshi added.

"The preliminary medical examination of the child ruled out sexual assault. The bloodstained knife used by the accused to kill the victim has been recovered," Priyadarshi stated.