A 32-year-old man allegedly buried a three-year-old girl after she suffocated in his vicious sexual assault at Kurubagoddi in Raibag taluk, Belagavi district, on Thursday.
The shocking incident comes two weeks after a youth reportedly tried to bury alive a two-and-a-half-year-old girl after raping her at Vannur village in Bailhongal taluk of the district on September 9.
In the latest incident, the suspect, Uddappa Ramappa Ganiger (32), turned out be a close relative of the girl. Police said he lured her with chocolates while she was playing outside her home in the evening. Some residents saw Ganiger with the girl but ignored it since he is related to her.
Ganiger took the girl to a sugar cane field about 100 metres away and sexually assaulted her. The girl suffocated in the vicious assault. The suspect then half buried her and fled the scene.
Meanwhile, the girl’s parents grew anxious as she didn’t return home. Enquiries with other residents revealed that the girl had gone with Ganiger. The girl’s parents and villagers confronted him but he feigned ignorance. They beat him up and turned him over to the jurisdictional Harugeri police.
Ganiger confessed after intense questioning. The police went to the sugar cane field and recovered the girl’s half-buried body. Belagavi Superintendent of Police B R Ravikanthe Gowda, too, visited the village and inspected the spot.
The police have booked Ganiger for kidnap, murder and under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act.
The suspect was later taken to the district hospital in Belagavi and subjected to medical examination.
Shocked by the repeated incidents of child sexual abuse in the district, many people and members of various organisations staged a protest in front of the emergency ward of the hospital and demanded that the suspect be handed over to them. Amarnath Reddy, in-charge DCP (Law and Order), and other police officers managed to pacify the crowd.
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