Missing 10-year-old girl found dead in Kolhapur

“On Wednesday morning the parents of the girl left for work and asked a relative visiting them to look after the children. When the parents of the girl returned in the evening, the 10-year-old was nowhere to be seen. It came to light that the girl had left the house in the afternoon. They searched the area around their house. The incident was reported to the police and we registered a case of kidnapping at night. The police, family members and neighbours continued the search till 4 am but she could not be found,” said Mahendra Pandit, SP, Kolhapur.

“In the morning, we intensified the search and teams from the local Crime Branch joined those from the police station. The dog squad was also roped in. The canine directed us to a location where the body of the girl was found around noon on Thursday. The forensics team was called for collecting samples from the location. We have also obtained CCTV footage in which the girl is seen walking with an unidentified man. Some suspects have been detained and are being questioned. We are investigating the possibility of sexual assault on the girl.”

An officer from Kolhapur district police said the initial postmortem report points to suspected sexual assault and that further investigation was on.