India, July 17 -- A 37-year-old man was arrested after a brief exchange of fire with the police for allegedly murdering a three-year-old girl, who had gone missing from southwest Delhi's Kapashera area, an officer said on Thursday. Chandan Kumar, a native of Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly confessed to the crime during preliminary interrogation, police said. The three-year-old girl had gone missing on the evening of July 10, following which an FIR was registered at Kapashera police station and an investigation was launched. "During the intervening night of July 14 and 15, police recovered the body of a child from the Kapashera drain near FIMT College. The body was identified as that of the missing girl," a senior police officer said.
A crime team inspected the spot and the postmortem report confirmed that the child had been murdered before her body was dumped in the drain, police said. During the investigation, police analysed CCTV footage and identified Chandan Kumar, who lived in the same building as the victim's family, as a suspect after finding his movements suspicious. Police said a raid was conducted at his hideout in Kapashera on Thursday. When the team attempted to apprehend him, he allegedly opened fire. In retaliatory firing carried out in the exercise of the right of private defence and to effect his arrest, the accused sustained a bullet injury in his left leg and was overpowered. A country-made pistol and one live cartridge were recovered from his possession. The accused, a tailor by profession, is married, and his wife and five-year-old son live in his native village in Ballia, police said. Police said efforts are underway to ascertain the motive behind the murder, while further investigation in the case is underway.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.