The anti-homicide wing of the detective department, which carried out the investigation, claimed the accused — Ram Kumar alias Lombu — had lured the victim with biryani and chips when the child strayed into an old building around 8.45pm. The accused has been the caretaker of the building for 12 years.
The accused has reportedly accepted the crime but is continuously changing his statements to confuse investigators on the exact sequence of events. The postmortem, however, confirmed rape. The probe, which has been taken over by the detective department, will now rest on building up strong evidence that will depend on technical and circumstantial evidence.
Police sources claimed the accused was addicted to child pornography, a fact that will be established once forensic experts go through the accused’s mobile phone.
“The accused was questioned about his movements on the night of crime. After prolonged interrogation, he failed to answer certain queries and we arrested him based on his examination and the evidence we collected. We have charged him under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 376AB ( rape on woman under twelve years of age) and Section 6 of the POCSO Act (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault),” said joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
Sources said the victim had celebrated her birthday last Monday and was unhappy that two of her maternal uncles could not join the party. She accompanied her elder sister from their residence at Sovabazar around 8pm and reached her maternal uncle’s residence sometime later. She spent barely five minutes inside before stepping out to play with friends. Cops believe that the victim, who had been earlier warned to stay from the Bhoot Bangla (the building where the crime took place) by her grandmother, had gone inside to play hide and seek.
The next sequence of events are still under probe. Sources claimed the child was offered biryani and chips, some of which she ate. “The postmortem report suggests that she might have been murdered between 9pm and 2am,” claimed a police source.
While there is a theory that the child was drugged so that she could be lured to the staircase close to the third floor balcony, there are some questions on the role of a few residents, who reside there on the second and third floors. The state child rights body, meanwhile, sought a report on the incident on Friday.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/security-guard-arrested-for-jorabagan-rape-murder/articleshow/80717312.cms
