School ‘absolved’,cops arrest neighbour

Contrary to earlier reports that the girl was raped on the premises of her school,the police now claim that Lodhi had raped the minor a week before and this eventually led to her death. The postmortem had earlier attributed the death to damage to intestines,blood loss and shock as a result of forced unnatural sex.

The 12-year-old had been sent back home from her school,Bharti Gyan Sthali,after she “fell ill” on September 27,and left on a cot outside her house bleeding. Her mother was away at work at the time,and rushed home on being informed by the neighbours. Bhadoria had found her daughter unconscious and her blood-stained uniform stuffed in her bag. She was rushed to hospital but died on the way.

According to Circle Officer of Kalyanpur,Laxmi Niwas Mishra,Munna had been entrusted by the girl’s mother to look after her daughters while she was away at work and had confessed to assaulting the 12-year-old on September 20. Soon after,Munna,who is married and is the father of three small children,left for his native village in Unnao. He has been booked for murder and unnatural sex.

Mishra said that following the assault,the girl had suffered internal injuries and started bleeding. Munna allegedly bought her some medicine,costing Rs 17,to stop the bleeding. According to Mishra,in the absence of proper treatment,her injuries got aggravated.

Speaking to mediapersons,Munna confessed to “raping” the girl on September 20 but denied sodomy. He claimed he left for his native village as it was flooded and his family had sought his help. He retuned to Kanpur only on Wednesday.

The CO said Divya’s classmates had told them that she did not go out to play during interval that day. “When she started bleeding profusely,the school authorities joined three benches and made her lie down there for some time,” he said. Both Bhadoria and Lodhi are tenants in a two-storey house in Roshan Nagar locality of Kanpur. While Bhadoria stayed with her two daughters on the ground floor,Lodhi stayed alone in a room on the first floor. He works in a biscuit factory.

In all,there are 10 tenants in the house. While Lodhi had been living there for about 20 years,Bhadoria,who works as a security guard in a shopping mall,had shifted there around five months back. While Bhadoria worked during day,Munna worked at night.

Bhadoria on Wednesday refused to believe Munna could have committed the crime. “He has been very supportive to our family,and I cannot believe he has committed the crime,” she alleged. She also claimed that barring a slight fever,her daughter was fine when she left for school on September 27.