Jalpaiguri: The body of a 7-year-old girl, who went missing last week, was found at Alipurduar’s Jaigon on Tuesday after her alleged rapist and killer was interrogated.
The 50-year-old accused had fled to Nepal after the alleged crime.
He was arrested on the border in the morning, and the girl’s body was recovered from Daldabari in Jaigaon. Two others were also interrogated and arrested late in the evening.
Police are looking into the possibility that the girl was gang-raped.
From char marks, it prima facie appeared that the accused had tried to burn the victim’s body after killing her. “The girl’s family had lodged a diary at Jaigaon police station after she went missing. On checking CCTV footage, we found that the man had kidnapped her. After his arrest, he admitted that he was drunk and had abducted the child, luring her with the promise of chow mein,” said Prasanta Debnath, SDPO, Jaigaon. The accused has been slapped with abduction and murder charges as well as sections of the Pocso Act.
The incident triggered massive unrest, with locals staging a road blockade on Asian Highway 48 that connects Bhutan. Shops were closed and Jaigaon PS was gheraoed in protest. Police deployed additional forces to the area to contain the situation from escalating and senior officials had to intervene to lift the blockade.
The girl’s body has been sent to Cooch Behar for a postmortem, which will be conducted on Wednesday.