'Killed her because I got scared': UP man who kidnapped toddler, kept body in bag

Noida: The Noida Police on Tuesday said they have arrested a man who is accused of killing his neighbour’s two-year-old daughter whose body was found stuffed in a backpack hung behind a door at his rented accommodation.

The accused Raghvendra alias Raghav Singh was arrested on Tuesday from a prepaid taxi booth near the Ghaziabad railway station, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Rajiv Dixit said.

Singh had kidnapped the toddler on April 7 from her home in the Devla village and wanted to demand ransom for her release after he learnt that her father had made some money recently, he said.

A missing person’s complaint was lodged at the local police station the next day. While the police had launched an investigation to find the child, her body was found on April 9 from Singh’s accommodation after other residents of the building noted a foul smell emanating from it, Dixit said.

The accused and the victim’s family live as tenants in the same building in the Surajpur police station area, he said.

The body was stuffed in a backpack and there was no one in the house as Singh had fled after strangulating the child to death with a shawl, which has also been recovered upon his arrest on Tuesday, the officer said.

Both the accused and the girl’s father are daily wage earners. Singh lived in the rented house with his wife and two children, aged 3 and 9, and all had left home some 20 days ago, according to the police.

“Upon questioning, the accused told the police that he had thought of kidnapping the child with the intention to demand a ransom from her family. He had come to know that the girl’s father had made some money recently and was planning to construct a house,” Dixit said.

“When we asked him why he killed the toddler if all he wanted was ransom money, the accused told the police that he got scared that he would get caught and his plan would be revealed. Otherwise, he said he would have returned the child to her home upon getting the money,” the additional DCP said.

Singh is a native of Ballia district in eastern Uttar Pradesh and had gone untraceable since the killing, the officer said, adding that multiple police teams were formed to ensure his arrest at the earliest. Police teams were sent to his native place as well as to locations where he had relatives but the breakthrough came when our surveillance team traced him in adjoining Ghaziabad, from where he was nabbed this morning.

An FIR was lodged under the Indian Penal Code section 363 (missing) initially but later charges under section 302 (murder) was also added to the case, the police said.