Even as the post-mortem report revealed that the four-year-old girl, who was found brutally murdered in Kodichikkanahalli in Madiwala police station limits on Tuesday, was “strangled to death”, the police picked up three youths in the connection with the case.
Special team
“We have detained some suspects and are questioning them. A special team is handling the case and we will make a breakthrough soon,” said Suneel Kumar, Additional Commissioner (Law and Order).
Police sources confirmed that the child bore visible marks of a sexual assault. Though the post-mortem report said the death was due to strangulation by hands, hospital sources said they were awaiting the pathology report to confirm rape.
The girl went missing from her house on Monday evening and was found dead the next morning in an isolated place near a government school a few hundred yards away from her house. On Monday, the four-year-old was playing outside the house of her caretaker, who is also her neighbour. When the caretaker went inside the house to put the girl’s two-year-old sister to bed and returned a little later, she found the four-year-old missing.
Lured away
Meanwhile, police suspect that the child may be lured away by somebody from the neighbourhood who knew her. Eyewitnesses said that the child’s body bore bite marks, her eyes gouged out and there were multiple injury marks on the private parts.
On Tuesday, the police went door to door questioning the people in the area. “We have three suspects, we are questioning them. The case will be solved soon,” an official informed.