Mangaluru: Mangaluru City Police have arrested four persons for allegedly gang-raping and and murdering an 8-year-old girl in a tile factory in the outskirts of Mangaluru.
The four accused have been identified as Manish Tirki (33) Jay Singh (21), and Mukesh Singh (20) and Muneem Singh (20).
The first three were working at the tile factory with the girl’s parents. Muneem Singh, who was working as a labourer at Puttur had helped the other three in the crime. While the first three sexually assaulted the girl, Muneem was standing guard.
Giving details of the crime, Mangaluru City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar said that the victim’s parents hail from Jharkhand. The victim was one of their four children.
On the day of the incident, the girl had gone out to play with her siblings. While the other three returned, the parents who couldn't find the girl had launched a search. Finally, around 6 pm the dead body of the girl was found in a drain near the factory.
Police registered a case under the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Four teams comprising DCP (Law and Order), DCP (Crime), and ACPs were formed to probe the case, considering the sensitive nature of the crime.
During the investigation, the police came to know that Jay Singh and Manish Tirki who lived in the same room had sexually harassed the girl several times earlier.
A couple of days before the incident, Jay Singh, Mukesh Singh, Manish Tirki had planned to rape the girl. As the number of laborers is less on Sunday, they decided to execute their plan on November 21.
Mukesh Singh, Manish Tirki, and Jay Singh raped the girl in turn. When the girl started screaming Jay Singh strangulated the girl and killed her.
