Mangaluru cops arrest four for sexually assaulting, murdering 8-year-old girl

The police on Monday arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in sexually assaulting and murdering an eight-year-old child and later dumping her body in a drain, at a tile factory in Parari in Mangaluru Rural Police Station limits.

The child is the daughter of a labourer couple working in the tile factory and the incident had occurred on November 21.

The arrested have been identified as Muneem Singh (20), Mukesh Singh (20) and Jayban (21), all from Panna in Madhya Pradesh and Manish Tirki (33) from Ranchi in Jharkhand, said City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar.

Explaining the incident, the Commissioner said that the eight-year-old child along with her siblings had gone out to play after lunch on November 21 and failed to return back even after 3 pm. The parents, along with the labourers of the factory, and people from nearby houses began searching for the child and found her unconscious in a drain near the factory in the evening.

Following a complaint by the parents, police questioned over 20 labourers — most of whom are from north India — on November 21. While three of the arrested persons are employees of the factory, a fourth person (Muneem Singh)  had come from Puttur to meet the trio.

Four police teams were involved in cracking the case. The post mortem report had revealed that the child was sexually assaulted and was murdered by throttling the neck. The child was allegedly gang-raped by the three arrested and had suffered from excessive bleeding, said the Commissioner.

Further, the Commissioner said that among the arrested, Jayban and Manish had in the past sexually assaulted and harassed the child. The child was even offered money, chocolates, and sweets for not revealing the incident. Both had revealed the same to Muneem and Manish four days prior to the incident. The parents of the child were in an inebriated condition when the incident had taken place.

Though the arrested Muneem Singh had not sexually assaulted the child, he ensured that none were at the spot when they throttled the child after noticing excessive bleeding and dumped the body in the drain, the Commissioner said.

After the incident, Jayban and Manish Tirki remained in the factory premises while the remaining two had left for Puttur. Both had even searched for the child when she went missing.

The City Police Commissioner announced a cash reward for ACP Ranjith Kumar Bhandaru. 

Write to department concerned

Taking a serious note of the incident, the City Police Commissioner said that he will would to the concerned departments of women and child development, labour, revenue and social welfare through district administration on the major establishments where the family of the labourers along with their children reside in the sheds nearby, to ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future.

The letter will direct the concerned department heads to direct the owners, supervisors of the establishments to take care and remain attentive towards the wellbeing of the children and women.

A similar incident of sexually assaulting a minor child had taken place in a fish drying unit in Hoige Bazar recently. “I will also inform DK deputy commissioner to convene a meeting of the concerned departments to discuss safety measures to be taken in such establishments,” said the Commissioner.

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