Man confesses to rape, murder of 7-year-old

Police confirm suspect has no mental health issues and is not a drug addict

HYDERABAD:

A divorcee employed at a barber shop has turned out to be the suspect who has allegedly kidnapped, raped and killed a seven-year-old schoolgirl in Mirpurkhas district in connivance with one more hitherto undisclosed suspect.

SSP Mirpurkhas Sumair Noor Channa on Wednesday shared with the media the police accomplishment of catching the suspect in three days after dead body of Aamna Kundrani was found lying by the side of a distributary in Jhalori area.

The child was kidnapped on November 4. The SSP told the press conference that the suspect Zahid Khaskheli was rounded up at around 1pm on Tuesday. He was, according to the police sources, also among the suspects who were detained for preliminary investigation on November 9.

Khaskheli was also named as a suspect by Ghulam Haider Kundrani, father of the deceased child. According to Kundrani, the suspect had tried to mislead him the day his daughter had gone missing. Khaskheli had told him that he had seen her crying outside her school after which he dropped her inside the school.

"The child was kidnapped from outside her house between 11.30am to 12 noon," the SSP said. "And the incident [of suspected rape and murder] happened in an hour after the kidnapping." The child was taken to a vacant school building in ruins where her body was left until the next morning when Khaskheli went back to the school, packed the body in a sack and threw it into the Jamrau distributary.

The child was choked to death with a nebulising pipe which the police have happened to recover, the SSP claimed. The police have also secured confession of the suspect while the postmortem and DNA reports will further help the police in preparing a charge sheet against Khaskheli. The provisional autopsy report has though established rape. According to Channa, the investigating cops have been informed by some witnesses that they had seen two men taking away the child. Channa expressed hope that the second suspect will also be caught soon but he stopped short of identifying him.

He said the suspect was a known face for the child as he used to give her pocket money and confectionery. "This case has underlined the need for all parents to be watchful of their children. Like we teach them about good touch and bad touch, society also ought to sensitize children against trusting such people."

Commenting on the mental condition of the suspect, the SSP told that Khaskheli neither has mental issues nor is he a drug addict. The child's father expressed satisfaction at the police inquiry. He demanded an exemplary punishment for Khaskheli. The incident's FIR has been registered at taluka police station on Kundrani's complaint. The sections of murder and rape will be inserted once the police receive the medical reports.