VASCO
Vasco police on Saturday arrested two persons in connection with the shocking rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl at a site under construction in Vaddem-Vasco in the wee hours of Friday morning.
Sources said that both the accused – Murari Kumar (24) and Upnesh Kumar (22) – are natives of Bihar and while one was a painter, the other was a mason and both were working at the construction site.
Briefing media persons, South Goa SP Sunita Sawant said police had interrogated all labourers working at the construction site, after the 5-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted and murdered by smothering and strangulation. “We came across some leads and investigations helped us zero down on two persons. Both the accused are from Bihar and have confessed to have committed the gruesome crime of rape and murder of the girl,” said SP Sawant.
“We will take them shortly for a medical examination. Police will produce them before a court to seek custody.”
As per preliminary investigations, SP Sawant said both accused had been in Goa since the last one year and had been at the site before the victim’s family came to Goa nine months ago.
“At the police station, there is no record of other crimes against these persons but during the course of investigation, we realised that one of the accused had trespassed into the room of the victim and tried to touch the victim’s mother a day before the murder,” said SP Sawant.
“The wife had then raised an alarm and informed her husband, who then reported the matter to the supervisor. The girl’s father had said the accused persons were heavily drunk when they had trespassed into their room,” said Sawant.
“There were rooms at the construction site where four families were living, including the family of the girl. There were other 16 workers also living in the other rooms, which included 11 people from Jharkhand and 5 persons from Bihar.”
“With the arrest of these two Bihar natives, we have already contacted our counterparts in Bihar to check if they have any criminal background in their native place,” SP Sawant added.
