Accused lured 5-year-old, then raped and murdered her

New Delhi, March 14: Holi was two nights away but in the poor lanes of her Pitampura slum the mood was already festive. The little girl who skipped merrily behind the stranger with the fruit bag smelt a treat in it. They stopped at a house a few harmless turns away from her door where the man's friend had been cooking. They gave her meat, and resumed drinking. What they did afterwards has left even the police veterans shocked and disgusted.

The two took hold of the five-yearold and felt her up, doing with their fingers what in criminology is called 'digital rape'. The horrified girl cried and tore about to reach the safety of her home and family. Her tiny limbs twisted and strained in vain as one man smothered her while the other continued the unnatural act. Within moments, the playful child had become a broken rag doll. But the beastly assault continued on her corpse.

The Bhalaswa Dairy police said on Tuesday that labourer Raja Ram (28) and plumber Mushtaq (32) defiled the body in every way for hours, on the evening of March 6. Finally, they packed it in a gunny bag after mutilating the private parts, and dropped it near a bush in the Bhalaswa Dairy area, where it was found the next morning.

The week old case was solved on Monday as the police became suspicious of the two men who kept offering unsolicited help in spite of being unrelated to the child. They have been arrested under IPC sections 302 (murder ), 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 363 (kidnapping) and 373 (obtaining possession of a minor with criminal intent).

Additional DCP (northwest) Romil Baaniya said the duo stayed close by the child's house, and on the day of the rape and murder they had been celebrating their new jobs with meat and liquor. "One of them went out in the evening to buy fruit. On the way back, he saw the girl playing outside her house and gave her grapes. He lured her inside their house, and gave her some meat before the crime.''

About the duo's suspicious behaviour, the officer said, "They kept on insisting that we search in places that the girl never visited. But they cracked under questioning. At their house, we found bloodstained articles that we believe belonged to the victim. We have preserved the girl's vaginal swab and a DNA test of the accused will be carried out''.