JOIN USMissing girl found dead in neighbour's house after 4 days
A six-year-old girl who had gone missing for the past four days was found hacked to death at her neighbour’s house at Veerabhadranagar in Girinagar on Sunday.
The decomposed body of Harshita has been recovered from the house of her neighbour, Anil.
Harshita was the only child to her parents - Saraswathi, a domestic help and Shivakumar, who runs a hotel. The couple are living in the city for the past eight years. Harshita was studying in a local nursery school.
Anil, a native of Kalaburagi, came to Bengaluru a year ago. He is employed at a stone- crushing unit and was living in a rented accommodation, next to Harshita’s house, police said.
Harshita did not return home till Thursday late afternoon and her parents searched her for frantically. Anil pretended to express concern and joined the parents in the search.
The couple lodged a missing complaint with the police as their search did not yield results. Anil absconded on Thursday night and hence the police strongly suspected his involvement in the missing case, DCP (South), Sharanappa told DH.
He had told the neighbour that he was going to Kalaburagi to bring his wife to Bengaluru.
The clue
On Sunday evening, Anil called up one of his neighbours requesting him to switch off lights in his house through the window as he had forgotten to do so. The neighbour opened the window and attempted to switch off the lights.
He noticed foul smell emanating from inside Anil’s house. He grew suspicious and informed the police who rushed to the house, broke open the locks and entered inside.
After a search, the police found Harshita’s body in a big carton in Anil’s house. “The suspect has used a blunt weapon to kill the child. Harshita had sustained massive injuries on her head,” said the DCP.
A few local residents claimed that Anil was often seen with the victim with chocolates.
The parents too said that he would often take her away on the pretext of buying her chocolates. There were reports that Anil raped the child before hacking her to death. However, the police were tight-lipped about it.
“We are yet to receive a complaint from the child’s parents. The body has been sent for post-mortem. We will ascertain the rape angle only after receiving the autopsy report,” the DCP said.