A seven-year-old girl was allegedly killed by one of her neighbours “on the advice of a tantric” in Kolkata’s Tiljala area, prompting local people to blockade roads and railway tracks and vandalise police vehicles on Monday. A man hailing from Bihar’s Samastipur and working in a factory who has confessed to the killing was brought before a city court and remanded to police custody till April 9.
The girl, a resident of Kustia’s Shri Dhar Roy Road, was missing since Sunday morning and after an extensive search, policemen found her body in one of the flats in an apartment block in the locality, the police said.
The flat owner was arrested and the body was sent for post-mortem examination.
Alleging that the police “delayed” in searching for the missing girl and that she was possibly sexually abused, locals protested outside the Tiljala Police Station and vandalised property in the area damaging several vehicles on Sunday night demanding strict action against the culprit.
“The girl went missing on Sunday morning. We received a complaint from the parents and after intensive searches we spotted her body kept in a gunny bag, inside the apartment of one local whom we have arrested later as the prime accused in the case,” a senior officer of Tiljala Police Station said.
The police said that the accused, who hails from Bihar’s Samastipur, has been working in a vest-manufacturing unit in the locality.
“He has admitted to his crime and said that he has done this on the advice of a tantric whom he and his wife had approached to get some remedy for their childless state. The accused said that the tantric has advised them to kill one 7-8 year-old girl during this ongoing Navratri period to be blessed with their own child,” the policeman said.
A search for the tantric is also on, he added.
Three persons including a woman have been detained for their alleged involvement in the vandalism, a police officer said.
Demanding release of the detained persons, local people on Monday morning put up blockades on the roads of Tiljala area.
In the afternoon, they blockaded the key EM Bypass and railway tracks in the South Sealdah section disrupting road traffic and train services.
Three police vehicles were ransacked while one jeep and a two-wheeler were torched, an officer said.
Locals also pelted policemen with stones when a huge team of security forces reached the place in order to disperse them.
Police had to fire tear gas to disperse the mob and a huge team of Rapid Action Force (RAF) was deployed to bring the situation “under control”, he said.
“The situation is under control now and we have detained a few persons for their involvement in today’s vandalisation. We will be verifying with the CCTV footage. Raids and searches are on,” a senior officer said.
Teams of the RAF, anti-rowdy section and policemen in plain clothes are currently deployed in and around the Tiljala area to keep a check so that there is no deterioration of the situation, he added.
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