Guna:

A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of his eight-year-old daughter in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district, with a doctor suspecting that she was raped before being killed, an official said on Sunday.

The child’s body with a hand and a leg tied to a stone was found in a well on Saturday, three days after she went missing under Chachoda police station limits, some 75 km from the district headquarters, an official said.

Chachoda police station in-charge Machal Singh Mandeliya said suspicion arose about the likely involvement of the girl’s father as he was not showing any interest in the search for his daughter.

Citing the initial probe, he said the girl was last seen with her father before she went missing.

After the girl’s body was found, police handed it over to her family after post-mortem, he said. Police detained the girl’s father after her last rites on Sunday morning, Mandeliya said.

The father told the investigators that he killed the girl and dumped her body in a well after tying her hand and leg to a stone with a towel.

Chachoda’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Divya Rajawat said in the preliminary post-mortem report, Dr Ankit Upadhyaya from the local government hospital has expressed suspicion that the girl was raped before being murdered.

Further investigation is underway, the official added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Indore:

Police on Thursday said they have arrested three of the six persons who allegedly assaulted two army officers and raped their woman friend near Mhow in Madhya Pradesh.

The announcement of arrests came on a day Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi slammed the BJP over the incident, alleging “non-existent” law and order in the states ruled by the saffron party.

Anil Baror (27) and Pawan Bansunia (23) were produced before a local court which remanded them in police custody for five days, said a police official. Another accused, Ritesh Bhabhar (25), was arrested on Thursday night.

Superintendent of Police (Rural) Hitika Vasal told PTI that Bhabhar was accused of threatening the two army officers and their two women friends with a pistol during the incident, while the other accused were carrying sticks.

A total of six accused have been identified in connection with the incident that took place in the early hours of Wednesday near the popular tourist spot Jam Gate, about 30 km from Mhow military cantonment, police said.

“Several teams are on the lookout for the three on the run accused, and a reward of Rs 10,000 has been announced for (information about) each of them,” the SP said.

The army officers, aged 23 and 24, undergoing the Young Officers course at the Infantry School in Mhow cantonment town, had gone out for a picnic with their two female friends.

The accused arrived at the picnic spot around 2 am, and started assaulting one of the officers and his female friend who were sitting in the car, police said.

Upon hearing the commotion, the other officer and his woman friend, who were on a hilltop, reached the spot.

Later, after police reached the spot, the army officers and their female friends were brought to Mhow civil hospital, where a medical examination confirmed that one of the women was raped, an official said.

A case has been registered under sections 70 (gang rape), 310-2 (dacoity), 308-2 (extortion) and 115-2 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and under sections of the Arms Act based on the complaint filed by the officer.

One of those arrested reportedly has a case of loot registered against him in 2016.

The crime spot is located in a hilly region surrounded by forests, said SP Vasal.

Badgonda police station in-charge Lokendra Singh Hirore said the accused held one of the couples captive while beating them up, and told the other couple that the hostages would be released only when they give them Rs 10 lakh.

“The complainant has told us that the accused took his woman friend away to a place and he suspected that she was raped. The woman’s statement is yet to be recorded,” the official said.

Rahul Gandhi slammed the BJP over the attack, saying the negative attitude of the BJP government towards rising crimes against women is “extremely worrying”.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the prime minister talks big about women’s safety, but women across the country are still waiting for a serious effort for their safety.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the violence against the two army men and the rape of their female companion in Madhya Pradesh is enough to shame the entire society.

“Law and order in BJP-ruled states is almost non-existent and the negative attitude of BJP government towards the increasing crimes against women is extremely worrying,” he said.

This audacity of the criminals is a result of the total failure of the administration and the unsafe environment prevailing in the country which is also a restriction on the freedom and aspirations of the daughters of India, Gandhi said.

In her post on X, Priyanka Gandhi said the incident of gang rape of a woman after holding army officers hostage in Madhya Pradesh, and that of the naked body of a woman being found on the highway in Uttar Pradesh are “heart-wrenching”.

Every day on average 86 women are becoming victims of rape and brutality in the country, she said.

“From home to outside, from road to office, women are not safe anywhere. Half of the country’s population is not only unsafe, but due to such brutality, the morale of crores of women is broken every day,” Priyanka Gandhi said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rewa (MP):

Police probing the April 24 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa, have found that her teenage brother sexually assaulted her after watching a pornographic video on mobile and then killed her, following which his mother and his two elder sisters helped in the cover-up, an official said.

The police cracked the case and detained the victim’s 13-year-old brother, their mother and sisters aged 17 and 18 after interrogation of 50 people, intense questioning of the accused persons and on the basis of technical evidence, he said on Saturday.

Providing details of the case, Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh said, “A nine-year-old girl was raped and strangulated to death under Jawa police station limits on April 24, following which the police had registered a case and started a probe.” “The body of the victim was recovered from the courtyard of her house where she was sleeping at the time of the incident,” he said.

After the intense interrogation of the family members, it came to light that the victim’s 13-year-old brother had slept beside her at night. It was found that the teenage boy raped his sister after watching obscene videos on the mobile phone, he said.

When the victim threatened to tell this to their father, the boy stranguled her and later woke up his mother and confided in his mother. She then found that the victim was still alive. On seeing that, the accused again strangled her, Singh said.

In the meantime, his two elder sisters also woke up and all of them changed the spot of their bed before informing the police to mislead the probe. However, they finally admitted to their crime after being repeatedly interrogated, he said.

Further legal steps are being taken after detaining the boy, his two sisters and their mother, the official said.

“The police received information on April 24 morning that the body of the girl was lying in the courtyard of the house. Evidence relating to rape and murder were found in the post-mortem report and an SIT team was constituted for the probe,” Mr Singh said.

In order to mislead the investigators, the family members had told the police that the girl died after being bitten by a poisonous insect, he said.

The probe revealed that there was no sign of anybody entering the house, and family members also denied hearing any sound during the night, he said.

“After collecting technical evidence and interrogation of 50 people, police found repeated changes in the statements of the family members. On the basis of suspicion, they were intensely interrogated, following which they admitted the crime,” Mr Singh.