Thane man rapes minor girl, kills her by slitting throat before throwing body from 6th floor; arrested

Thane: A man allegedly kidnapped and raped a 10-year-old girl before killing her by slitting her throat and throwing her body from the bathroom window of his house located on the sixth floor of a residential building in Maharashtra's Thane, police said on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old man was arrested for the crime that took place on Monday night in the 10-storey building at Samrat Nagar in Mumbra area of the city, they said.

The incident was reported at 11.48 pm on Monday to the Thane Municipal Corporation's disaster management cell, its chief Yasin Tadvi said. The police on Tuesday initially registered a case under sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the man, who resides in Thakurpada area of Mumbra, a police official said.

Autopsy was conducted on the minor girl, which confirmed that she was raped and her throat was slit with a sharp weapon, he said. Based on the autopsy report, the police added BNS sections 96 (procuration of a child), 137 (2) (kidnapping), 64 (rape), 64 (I) (raping woman incapable of giving consent), 65 (2) (rape on woman under 12 years of age) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender), he said.

The accused allegedly lured the victim, who resides in a nearby building, by offering her toys, took her to his house where he raped her and then slit her throat with a sharp weapon. After that, he took her to the bathroom of his house and pushed her body from an open window there, the official said.

A police probe team checked every flat in the building and found a window of the bathroom in the man's house open from where he allegedly pushed the girl, he said.

According to Tadvi, the girl, who was not a resident of the building, was found lying in a vertical duct running through the structure under unclear circumstances. Some women heard a loud thud and alerted the police. Emergency services, including personnel from the Mumbra police station, fire brigade teams, regional disaster management cell and a private ambulance reached the spot. Despite a challenging rescue operation due to the narrow structure of the shaft, fire brigade officials retrieved the child. She was then taken to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa where doctors declared her brought dead, Tadvi said.