Man arrested for raping, killing five-year-old neighbour in Dhanbad

A 19-year-old man was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly raping and murdering a five-year-old girl, who lived near his house, at Monodih police outpost area in Dhanbad district.

Her body was found from a nearby forest without any clothes, about a kilometre away from the house of the accused, police said, adding the postmortem was conducted at Patliputra Medical College and Hospital and her body was handed over to her family on Monday.

Police said the accused, Dablu Modi, son of Puna Modi, a BCCL employee, lured the minor girl on pretext of giving her tasty food and took the girl to a marriage party in the neighbourhood.

“They remained there till late night. When her mother saw Dablu returning alone from the party, she asked him about her daughter. He was drunk and refused to reveal whereabout of her daughter. The victim’s mother soon lodged a missing report with Monodih police outpost,” a police officer said.

Dhanbad senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Ratan Chothe said, “Police arrested Dablu on Saturday night and during interrogation he confessed to his crime. He has been booked under section 376A, 302, 201 of the IPC and section 6 of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. He was sent into judicial custody after producing him before a magistrate on Monday. We intend to take up this case on priority basis to ensure speedy trial against the accused,” said the SSP.

“Prima facie it appeared that the accused first raped the girl and later killed her to hide his crime,” said superintendent of police (rural), Ashutosh Sekher, who had visited the scene after recovery of the victim’s body.