In a shocking incident, a three-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered by miscreants. Police on Wednesday night recovered the headless body of the three-year-old girl, missing from Tatanagar Station from the night of July 25 and nabbed the two culprits who have confessed to their crime.

DSP, Tatanagar rail police, Noor Mustafa Ansari, while addressing media at the rail police station in Tatanagar Station said that one of the culprits had taken away the three-year-old girl Rafida Khatoon from the Tatanagar Station platform number 2 while her mother Rakima Khatoon, a resident of Hussainidih under Jhalda police station in Purulia district of Bengal, was fast asleep on July 25. “We scanned CCTV footages and came to know that the man had taken away the girl child while her mother was asleep on platform number 2 at Tatanagar Station on July 25 night at around 11.40 pm. The mother lodged a missing complaint with us on July 26 morning and accused her paramour, Monu Mondal, a resident of Rajmahal in Sahibganj of stealing her child along with his friends,” said the DSP.

However, CCTV footages scanned by the police showed that Monu Mondal as sleeping near the woman when the culprits took away the child.

“We showed Monu Mondal the footage. However, he claimed ignorance about the culprits. However, based on the FIR lodged by Rakima, we sent Monu Mondal to Ghaghidih Jail for cheating the woman using fake name on July 29,” said Ansari.

“During investigation, we got tip-off about the culprit who had taken away the child, identified as Rinku Sahu, a resident of Ramadin Bagan, under Telco police station and got him arrested from his house. He confessed to raping and killing the child and also named his other accomplice as Kailash Kumar, a resident of Kasidih under Sakchi police station who too was arrested by yesterday evening,” the DSP informed. Later, at around 10 pm, the rail police took the two accused to the spot where Rinku had claimed to have dumped the body and recovered the headless body.

“We found the headless body inside the buses near the ISWP fabrication yard boundary wall. Rinku said that he had taken the child near the water filter plant in Ramadin Bagan on the same day night where he had raped the child alone and when she started crying, he beheaded her using a sharp edged weapon,” the police officer claimed.