Missing eight-year-old girl was raped and killed by three men in Bareilly

BAREILLY: An eight-year-old girl, who went missing from a wedding reception in the Aliganj area of Bareilly on the night of June 19, was allegedly gang-raped, brutalised and killed by three men who have now been arrested and sent to jail on Friday. It was an inhuman act as the girl was brutalised by the accused like demons, the Bareilly SSP Shailesh Pandey has said.
The girl's body was found without clothes outside the village on the morning of June 20. Police later recovered the girl's blood stained clothes along with other evidence from the house of the accused - two of whom are brothers.
SSP Pandey, who announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 to local police and crime branch teams for solving the case, told TOI, "We scanned the wedding guests' list, workers and spoke to the villagers. We got a clue when one of the accused, Rajeev, asked a mobile tower staff to give an incorrect statement to the police."
The Bareilly SSP added, "Thereafter, we cross-checked his statement and found that he was changing his version while his brother gave a different one. After interrogation and search, we recovered the girl's clothes. Thereafter, the accused admitted to their crime. Barring Rajeev, the other two are unmarried."
The murder of the eight-year-old girl in Aliganj was one of the three successive killings of minors which rocked Bareilly this month.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)