One of the two men arrested for the gruesome murder of a toddler in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh had been accused of raping his daughter five years ago, Hindustan Times reported quoting a police officer.
Aligarh Rural superintendent of police Mahilal Patidar told HT that the wife of one of the co-accused, Aslam, had filed a case at the Tappal police station for allegedly raping his own daughter in 2014. His daughter was four-years-old then.
His wife had shifted out after Aslam raped his daughter.
The decomposed body of the two-and-a-half-year-old was found in a garbage dump three days after she was reported missing by her family in Tappal township. Two suspects have been arrested.
The accused — Zahid and Aslam — have confessed to killing the girl after her father failed to return Rs 10,000 he had borrowed from them, police said in a statement.
The post-mortem examination confirmed death due to strangulation. It has not found any sign of sexual assault but this cannot be ruled out at this stage.
The murder triggered a massive outrage on social media, with political leaders and celebrities tweeting their disgust over the brutality of the crime. Some children also took out a candle-light march in Aligarh.
Amid outrage, authorities on Friday suspended five policemen for negligence and began proceedings to invoke the stringent NSA against the two accused.
The policemen, including a Station House Officer, were suspended for alleged delay in registering the case after the girl was reported missing on 30 May, and also for delaying the probe which eventually led to the discovery of her body on 2 June.
The SSP said a decision on adding the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act will be taken after the forensic report comes.
The girl's father had threatened to go on fast unto death, demanding the arrest of the accused's family members who, he said, "colluded" in the crime. The SSP met him and persuaded him against sitting on fast.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and PTI)
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