Five-year-old girl found dead in Bhopal flat, rape-murder suspected; 3 held

Bhopal: A 5-year-old girl who was found dead in a house in a multi-storeyed building in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal on Thursday is suspected to have been raped and murdered, a senior police official said.

A man, his mother and sister have been arrested in this connection, the official added.

As per the short postmortem report, it is suspected she was raped and killed, Bhopal police commissioner HC Mishra told PTI late evening.

A man, his mother and sister, who are neighbours of the victim, have been arrested, Mishra said.

The complete postmortem will be available on Friday, the commissioner added.

After the girl went missing on Tuesday from the building in which she resided, at least 100 policemen along with drones and divers (for search in nearby water bodies and drains) were deployed to trace her.

"She was found dead in a flat of the same building. Her body was in a plastic container on a high shelf of the bathroom. It was not visible when the house was earlier searched. The accused wanted to dispose of the body and tried four times but could not do so as there was strong police deployment at the building and in the vicinity," the commissioner said.

Police teams searched around 1,500 houses in order to trace the girl, Mishra informed.

After the body was found during the day, angry residents blocked a road and gheraoed (encircled) Shahjahanabad police station seeking death penalty for those involved.

Earlier in the day, the girl's family members claimed they had asked police to get the locked flat opened after filing the missing complaint. They alleged police did not pay attention to their request.

Local MLA Atif Arif Aqueel also visited the police station after the body was found.