The incident happened on March 24, said police. (Representational)
A 5-year-old girl was raped and murdered by a man in Delhi's Bawana area on the eve of Holi, March 24. After the murder, the man hid her body in a factory before running away out of town, said police.
On March 24, while everyone was celebrating the pre-Holi festivities of Holika Dahan, Delhi's Bawana police station received a call at around 10:27 pm about a suspected kidnapping of a 5-year-old girl from sector 1, Bawana. The girl's parents, who run a tea shop, told the police that they last saw her at around 5 pm and tried looking for her but couldn't find her.
A case was registered and the police started a manual search along with the parents. The search went on the entire night around the areas where the girl was last seen but she wasn't found. The factories in the area were closed on the eve of Holi.
CCTV Footage
The next morning, on March 25, the police went through CCTV footage of the area and found the girl walking alongside a man in one of them. The girl's parents recognised the man and identified him as Totan.
The police went to Totan's workplace, where he also lived, to arrest him. However, he had escaped by then. After interrogating some labourers who knew him, the police found out that Totan was going to board Poorva Express from New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS) to Howrah.
The Chase
A police team was immediately formed to reach NDLS, but the train had already left by the time they reached there.
On the morning of March 26, a police team left for the Kolkata Airport. Upon reaching there, they boarded a train for Asansol railway station and waited for Poorva Express. As the train arrived, they boarded it and started looking for the accused and found him after searching for a few minutes. He was brought back to Delhi on March 27.
Confession
The accused, Totan, confessed to raping and killing the girl and dumping her body in a factory in Bawana at around 7:30 pm on March 24.
After the interrogation, the girl's body was found, along with a blade and a brick.
POCSO Act, along with sections 302 (murder) and 376 (punishment for rape) have been added to the case.
The police are further interrogating the case.