Bengaluru girl, 6, murdered; medical examination confirms sexual assault, neighbour arrested

• Medical exam confirms sexual assault, murder of 6-year-old girl in Bengaluru
• Police arrested neighbour Yusuf Khan after a cross-state manhunt
• Rape charge under POCSO added as investigation continues

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A medical examination has confirmed the sexual assault and murder of a six-year-old girl in Bengaluru, police said on Sunday. The horrifying crime, which has sent shockwaves through the community, led to the arrest of a 35-year-old neighbour after a cross-state manhunt.

The victim’s father, a rag picker, reported her missing to Whitefield police station last Tuesday. Her body was discovered the same night in a drain near a temple in Nallurahalli.

A senior police officer was cited by TOI as saying that the post-mortem report established she was raped before being strangled to death. “Now, we will add a rape charge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) to the case and proceed with the investigation,” the officer stated.

Investigators, acting on leads, identified the suspect as Yusuf Khan, a neighbour of the victim’s family. Police traced Khan to a train and detained him when it halted at Cuttack railway station in Odisha. He was subsequently brought back to Bengaluru and arrested on a murder charge, which will now be expanded.

Preliminary investigations, according to police sources, point to a history of bitter acrimony between the accused and the victim’s mother. An investigating officer was cited by TOI as saying that the two adults had regular altercations over domestic matters and professional rivalry in their rag-picking work.

According to the investigating officer, the disputes between the accused and the victim’s mother involved quotidian issues such as fetching drinking water and the storage of scrap materials outside their modest homes.

Police allege that Khan, enraged by these persistent conflicts and a sense of professional rivalry, subsequently kidnapped, assaulted and murdered the young girl before fleeing the city.