4 held in gang-rape and murder of K'taka girl

Four persons have been arrested in the gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl in Dakshina Kannada district, police said on Thursday.

The arrested were identified as Jayban a.k.a Jay Singh (21), Mukhesh Singh (20), Manish Tirki (33) and Muneem Singh (20). Jay Singh and Mukhesh are from Madhya Pradesh and Muneem is from Jharkhand.

The gruesome incident took place on Sunday. The minor girl went missing from the premises of a tile factory where her parents worked. After frantic search her body was recovered from a drain attached to the factory.

Parents of the girl hailing from Jharkhand suspected that their daughter was sexually assaulted and killed by factory workers. Mangaluru Rural police took up the case for investigation.

The investigations revealed that, when the girl was playing with her three siblings in the premises of the factory near a water tank, accused Jayban lifted her to a room by covering her mouth and sexually assaulted her. Other accused took turns to rape the girl, the police said.

Accused Jayban strangled her to death and along with another accused Muneem, he dumped her body into a two-foot deep drain. The post-mortem report confirmed strangulation, anal sexual abuse and excessive bleeding.

Mangaluru Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar had formed four special teams comprising two DCP's and four ACP's. The team took 19 factory workers into custody and questioned them. CCTV footage was gathered and call lists were verified and locations were traced.

The police nabbed the accused based on the statement of a child on Tuesday. Accused Manish had joined the factory 11 months ago and three accused had joined work three months ago.

After the incident, two of the accused went to Puttur and other two remained at the factory accommodations and even searched for the girl along with parents feigning innocence. The police suspect the accused has been involved in many such cases. Investigation is on.