More than a month after a seven-year-old girl was found raped and murdered at Malwani, the police on Wednesday arrested a 19-year-old youth from her locality for the crime. Officials said the accused was arrested after DNA profiling provided evidence about his having committed the offence.
The victim, who used to stay with her family in Malwani, went missing on May 23, and after an extensive search, was found dead in a forest area near the Malwani creek. Medical examination confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted before being strangled to death.
Evasive, nervousADVERTISEMENT
“During the course of our investigations, we rounded up several suspects. One of them was Sunny Saroj, who stays in the same locality as the victim. We found his demeanour to be evasive and nervous. However, he kept denying any connection to the crime.
A team of experts from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina found semen traces on the victim’s clothes, and the police decided to get DNA samples from the accused. The samples were then sent to the FSL so that the DNA in them could be compared with the DNA in the semen traces.
“On Tuesday, the FSL sent a report stating that Saroj’s DNA had matched the DNA in the samples. We arrested him on Wednesday,” said senior police inspector Milind Khetle.
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