BENGALURU: A two-and-a-half year-old girl, who was playing in the corridor in front of her house, went missing and was later found dead in the bushes near her house.
The incident was reported in Gopalappa Layout under the Hebbal police station limits on Thursday night. The police have taken up a murder case and have launched a probe.
The deceased was the daughter of a couple from Darjeeling. The couple came to the city about four years ago. The father works as a cook at a restaurant in Halasur, while the mother ran a beauty parlour till six months ago.
The mother gave coffee and a biscuit packet to the child around 7.30 pm, and the girl went out to play in the corridor. The mother, who went inside the kitchen, returned after a few minutes, but found her daughter missing.
She enquired with the neighbours but they had no clue. They searched for the girl for sometime and when she was not found, the mother filed a missing complaint with the Hebbal police around 9.30 pm.
“The police rushed to the spot and searched for the girl. Around 11.30 pm, the girl’s body was found in the bushes inside the house compound,” the police said.
The police suspect that the girl was strangled to death. “The family stayed on the first floor and the girl’s parents have stated in the complaint that their child never went down by herself. It is suspected that someone came up and abducted the girl. More than 50 houses in the area are occupied by people from Darjeeling. The local residents are being questioned,” the police said.
The police are also not ruling out the possibility of someone sexually abusing the girl before killing her. “The exact reason behind the girl’s death will be known after postmortem report,” the police said.
