Outrage over 3-year-old’s shocking murder in UP’s Aligarh; 5 cops suspended

Mangalore Today News Network

Uttar Pradesh, Jun 07, 2019 :  Five policemen have been suspended for neglecting their duty after the murder of a three-year-old girl with her body mutilated and eyes gouged in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh, a senior official said on Friday. The shocking incident has sparked widespread condemnation and protests in the area.

One inspector, three sub-inspectors and one constable have been suspended after the girl was found dead in Tappal, around 50 km form Aligarh, on June 2, said Aligarh’s senior superintendent of police Aakash Kulhari. 

On Sunday, stray dogs appearing to drag out human body parts from a garbage dump alerted residents of a town near Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh to a horrific crime. A search revealed the mutilated body of a two-year-old girl who had been missing since May 30. The child was killed by neighbours who had a loan dispute with her father, the police say, NDTV reported.

 

A hashtag using her name, trending on social media, has brought the case to national attention. Over 17,000 tweets expressing horror and outrage have been posted in the last 24 hours and the deluge hasn’t stopped. Most have called for the harshest possible punishment for the killers. "Barbaric and evil," many have tweeted.

The Aligarh police say the child was strangled but the post-mortem has not confirmed rape. An arm and a leg were broken. The police said her eyes were not gouged out, as her family alleges, but appeared so because the body was heavily decomposed.

The child’s body was found close to her home on the outskirts of Aligarh. The two men arrested for the murder, Zahid and Aslam, lived just half a km away, and knew the family well. So brazen was their act of "revenge", say the police, that they left the body at a garbage dump near their house.

The police say Zahid had taken a loan of Rs. 50,000 from the girl’s father and still owed him Rs. 10,000, over which the two had a fight.

On May 30, the child vanished from right outside her home. Her parents, neighbours and relatives searched for her through the night before reporting her missing the next morning.

Three days later, a woman who picks up garbage saw dogs nibbling at a little body wrapped in a cloth. She raised an alarm.

Given the gravity of the case, it will be investigated under the National Security Act (NSA), an anti-terror law that enables detention of suspects who pose a threat to national security for a year, say the police. Five policemen have been suspended for negligence.

"We are proceeding with it as an NSA case, we will try to get it to a fast track court," said senior police officer Akash Kulhary, adding that five policemen had been suspended for not showing urgency in tracking down the missing child.

"The girl’s father told us that he had a money dispute with Zahid who had threatened him with dire consequences. We questioned Zahid and it was revealed that the body was hidden at Aslam’s house. The body was later found at the garbage dump," Mr Kulhary was quoted as telling news agency ANI.

The family and relatives of the child blocked roads in protest on Thursday and had to be pacified by senior police officials. The protesters have reportedly demanded that other family members of the arrested men also be arrested for the murder.

The sheer brutality of the crime has left many shaken.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "The horrific murder of a little girl in Aligarh, UP has shocked and disturbed me. How can any human being treat a child with such brutality? This terrible crime must not go unpunished. The UP police must act swiftly to bring the killers to justice."

"The brutal murder in Aligarh is yet another inhuman, unspeakable crime against an innocent child. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain her parents must feel. What has become of us," tweeted Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi.

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted: "Just can’t get over the 3 year old’s murder in Aligarh. How despicable a human the accused must be to have done something as heinous to her. As a society we continue to fail our children-their safety should be our priority, change of mindset towards our girls a necessity.

Actor Abhishek Bachchan said he was "disgusted and angered". "How can somebody even think of doing such a thing? Speechless..." he tweeted.