Ghaziabad mall horror: Man who played with girl, 7, lured her with chips, raped her, smashed her head with iron rod

GHAZIABAD: An 18-year-old labourer who often played with a seven-year-old girl and regularly gave her and her brothers chips and toffees allegedly lured her into an under-construction mall in Raj Nagar Extension on Friday evening, raped her along with a colleague, battered her head repeatedly with an iron rod, and threw her body down an empty shaft three floors into the basement, police said.Vinay Kumar (18) and fellow labourer Sahibuddin (22) had been working at the mall site for two and a half months, during which Vinay grew close to the girl and her siblings. "Vinay used to play with the girl and her brothers, and would give them toffees and chips," a police officer said. On Friday, the two allegedly used the same familiarity to lure her away with an offer of chips and a soft drink.An autopsy found more than 25 injury marks on her body, 17 of them on the head, along with two fractures on her left leg.CCTV footage helped police piece together the girl's final hours. "When we scanned CCTV footage, we found that the two accused entered the mall with the girl through the main gate around 7. 40pm. A couple of hours later, they came out — without her," said Dhawal Jaiswal, DCP (city and trans-Hindon).A senior police officer said the sequence of events was calculated and brutal. "The accused first beat the girl severely and then took turns to rape her.

It was Vinay's decision to kill her afterwards. He picked up an iron rod and struck her head repeatedly. Once they were certain she was dead, both men carried her to a nearby staircase and dropped her body into the basement through a shaft," the officer said.The girl had gone missing around 7. 30pm on Friday while playing with her brothers and other children from the slum settlement near the site. Her family searched the area but failed to find her initially.

Her body was eventually found in the basement, and police were informed at 1. 05am on Saturday, following which a team rushed to the mall.It took over an hour of searching before the crime scene itself was located, on the third floor. Police said they had to navigate the building with no electricity. "I suspected the basement wasn't where the crime happened. The corridors inside were like a maze, and there was no power.

So I switched on my phone's torch and started climbing. There was nothing on the first two floors. But on the third, I saw blood near the staircase.

I followed the trail to a room where the walls and floor were spattered with bloodstains. That's where I found her slippers, trousers, and the iron rod, stained red. It felt like something truly horrific had happened in that room. The bloodstains were everywhere," ACP Priyashree Pal told TOI.The under-construction mall had no guard posted at the entrance, which police believe allowed the accused to slip in unnoticed. The lone night guard on duty was stationed near an area where construction material is stored. He told police he heard a child crying "bachao, bachao" but assumed it was coming from the nearby shanties and went back to his phone.Police said the two accused had been drinking before the crime.

They had known each other since arriving from Bihar and stayed and drank together daily. Vinay is from Bettiah in Bihar and Sahibuddin from Khagaria.Both accused were produced in court on Sunday and remanded in judicial custody. Vinay was initially thought to be a minor when he was detained on Saturday, but police later confirmed he was 18.Acting on a complaint from the girl's father, an FIR was registered against the two at Nandgram police station under sections 70(2) (gang rape), 65(2) (rape of a woman under 12 years), 66 (causing death or persistent vegetative state of the victim), 140(1) (kidnapping or abduction), 103(1) (murder) and 3(5) (criminal acts by several persons) of the BNS, along with relevant provisions of the POCSO Act.