Man held for rape, murder of 7-yr-old girl
The City police have apprehended a 29-year-old man on the charge of sexually assaulting and murdering a seven-year-old girl in Mysore district more than five months ago.
Anil Kumar, a native of Mirle village in K R Nagar taluk of Mysore district, is suspected to have sexually assaulted and murdered Namitha (name changed), daughter of Manjunath and Reena, who hail from the same village, on April 30, 2011.
Namitha’s parents had petitioned the City Police Commissioner about their daughter going missing. In their complaint, they also suspected that Namitha might have been brought to Bangalore. The police chief asked them to file a missing person’s complaint with the jurisdictional Saligrama police station in Mysore district.
Upon investigation, it emerged that Namitha was playing with her younger brother near their house just before she went missing. It was also found that Kumar had sent Namitha’s brother to fetch a tablet a while later.
As Kumar came under the scanner, he was detained for questioning. Kumar later confessed to the crime. According to Kumar, he sexually assaulted her in a sugarcane field. Later, he strangled her, fearing she might report the matter to the villagers.
Kumar hid Namitha’s body in the dense field before running away. He returned to the crime spot about three months later, before the crops were to be reaped. The suspect gathered the remnants of Namitha’s highly decomposed body and threw them away in the river. He, however, did not forget to take gold ornaments and other valuables off Namitha’s corpse. The said valuables have been recovered from Kumar’s possession.
