Coimbatore: 34-Year-Old Man Arrested For Rape, Murder Of 7-Year-Old Girl; Cops Investigating His Grandma’s Death On Same Day

A 34-year-old man was arrested on the charges of brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old child in Pannimadai, Thudiyalur village near Coimbatore, News Today has reported.

The rapist-murderer identified as Santhosh, a resident of Thondamuthur, was working as an interior decorator’s assistant. He confessed to the crime during the police interrogation and admitted to kidnapping the child and killing her after sexually assaulting her.

Last Monday (25 March), parents of the six-year-old girl found her missing after which they lodged a complaint with the local police.

A day later, the body of the missing child was found abandoned in a narrow passage next to her house. Her limbs were tied and she bore several injuries on her forehead and jaw. The postmortem report at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) confirmed that she was sexually assaulted.

Special teams of police were formed to nab the culprit. A case was registered under sections 302 (Punishment for murder), 376(A) (Person committing an offence of rape and inflicting injury which causes death or causes the woman to be in a persistent vegetative state) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the sections of 5(l) (Commits penetrative sexual assault on the child more than once or repeatedly), 5(m) (commits penetrative sexual assault on a child below twelve years) of POCSO Act. The case was transferred to All Women Police of Thudiyalur for further investigation.

According to preliminary investigations, Santosh had returned home in an inebriated state last Monday. He saw the seven-year-old child playing with her friends. He kidnapped her and took her to a lonely place.

Santhosh, who is separated from his wife, used to visit his ailing grandmother whose house is situated close to the victim’s house. He has been visiting the same house for a month now. He had reportedly assaulted the girl once early this month, before raping her twice on 25 March, and then strangling her to death.

Santosh said, “After I raped her, she started crying. When her parents came in search of her, I took her inside my house and strangled her to death. My grandmother died the same night. I hid the child’s body inside my house and started to prepare for my grandmother’s funeral. Early next morning, I took her body to a ground nearby and left it there,” he said.

Santosh also confessed that he had earlier molested a couple of children in the locality. He reportedly threatened them of dire consequences if they informed anyone about his act.

A report in Covai Post quoted police sources as saying that they are investigating the death of Santosh’s grandmother who died on the same day as the young girl. The police are trying to establish if Santhosh was instrumental in killing his grandmother because she was in the house, bed-ridden, while he raped and murdered the child.

According to police sources, Santosh was in the habit of watching soft porn on YouTube.