Accused of rape and murder of 8-yr-old girl, 40-year-old man sent to police remand in Surat

Meanwhile, the girl’s parents, who are originally from Odisha, searched for her in the neighbourhood and later filed a missing complaint with police.

Teams from the Crime Branch, Special Operations Group and Chowk Bazaar police joined the search operation. From CCTV footage, they found that the girl had not moved out of the society. While searching houses in the society, they found a locked room in the neighbourhood.

Police found that a man was staying alone in the room after his family went to their native place in Patan district. They broke open the door and searched when the girl’s body was recovered. The body was identified by her parents and a postmortem was held at the New Civil Hospital.

The man has been booked for kidnapping, rap and murder under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Surat Crime Branch sleuths arrested the accused and handed him to Chowk Bazaar police who presented him before the court.

On Friday, family members of the girl staged a protest at Katargam area and demanded death penalty for the accused.

An inspector of Surat crime branch said, “The accused is a bike lifter who is involved in 14 such cases registered with Katargam, Umra, Mahidharpura, Katargam and Chowk Bazaar police stations. He was earlier arrested in such cases.”

While producing him before the Surat district court, police sought his remand for seven days, however, the court remanded him for four days.

An inspector associated with the probe said, “The accused was staying with his parents and is unmarried. Further investigation is on.”