Toddler sexually assaulted, murdered in Surat; factory worker detained

Surat, November 8

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, sexually assaulted and then smothered to death in Gujarat’s Surat city, police said on Monday, adding that a factory worker was detained in connection with the crime.

The child, a daughter of migrant workers from Bihar, went missing from outside her house in the Pandesara area while playing on Diwali night on Thursday. Her body was found on Sunday near a factory, located about 1 km away from her house, according to police.

A factory worker from Surat, who also hails from Bihar, was detained, Surat Police Commissioner Ajay Tomar told reporters.

He is identified as Guddu Yadav, who is a native of Gopalganj, and has been living and working in Surat, he said.

Tomar said police found pornographic clips from Yadav’s mobile phone which will be used as forensic evidence against him.

“Police succeeded in detaining the accused person using technical surveillance and human intelligence. All kinds of evidence against him will be collected scientifically such as porn clips found in his mobile phone,” he added.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, F-division, J K Pandya said the police on Monday received the postmortem report which revealed the girl was “subjected to forceful sexual assault before being smothered to death”.

Soon after police learnt about the girl going missing at around 9 pm on November 4, a massive search operation was launched involving 10 separate teams with around 100 personnel who searched the locality and nearby areas for four days before the victim’s body was found from an isolated place at around 10 am Sunday, police said in a release.

City crime branch and Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel were also involved in the operation. Around 1,000 posters of the missing girl were printed and announcements were made on loudspeakers apart from the police teams using technical surveillance and human resources to locate her, said the police.

The victim’s body was found on Sunday morning from bushes near a factory, after which a case of murder was lodged and the body was sent for postmortem, police said.

A case was registered under sections 302 (murder) and 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code. Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were added to the FIR on Monday. PTI