The girl’s throat had been slit and the body had been dumped in the bushes along the road in Shivrampur village, said Ramesh Yadav, SHO of Jaitpura police station. The girl’s throat had been slit and the body had been dumped in the bushes along the road in Shivrampur village, said Ramesh Yadav, SHO of Jaitpura police station.

A rape convict, who was released from jail after completing his 10-year imprisonment nearly two years ago, allegedly raped and killed a minor girl in Varanasi district’s Jaitpura police station area last week. While the incident took place on November 26, the accused was caught Tuesday on the basis of evidence collected during the investigation, police said.

The accused, Pappu Gupta (30), during interrogation, reportedly told the police that he killed the victim after raping her as the girl in the previous case had given a statement against him in court following which he was convicted. The accused had got married recently.

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According to the complaint lodged, the girl’s mother, who runs a grocery shop from her house, had sent her daughter to bring “paan” from a nearby market on the morning of November 26. After an hour, when she did not return home, her mother and other family members started searching for her. They later lodged a missing complaint with the police in the evening.

The mother, who is the complainant, told the police that Pappu Gupta had come to her shop when she had sent her 12-year-old daughter to the market, adding that the accused had left immediately after her daughter.

Suspecting his role in the case, police interrogated Pappu the same night, but he denied his involvement. The next day, an unidentified body of a girl was found along the road in Jaunpur district’s Kerakat area. The victim was later identified as the missing girl.

The girl’s throat had been slit and the body had been dumped in the bushes along the road in Shivrampur village, said Ramesh Yadav, SHO of Jaitpura police station.

“After the body was recovered, the police collected call details record of Pappu Gupta to ascertain if his cellphone location was in Kerakat area on the evening of November 26. A police team later went through the CCTV footage from petrol pumps along the Varanasi-Jaunpur Road and found Pappu was on his scooter in a queue at a petrol pump in Kerakat area,” said SSP, Varanasi, Nitin Tiwari.

Pappu Gupta was brought in for interrogation again and was questioned about his presence in the area where the girl’s body was recovered. “During interrogation, Pappu confessed to have raped and killed the girl. He said he murdered the girl after raping her as the victim in the previous incident (for which he was jailed) had given a statement against him in the court and he was jailed for 10 years,” the SSP added.

The accused has been booked on charges of kidnapping, rape and murder of the minor girl and also under POCSO Act, the SSP said.

SHO Ramesh Yadav said Pappu told the police that he followed the girl as he saw her mother asking her to bring paan from the market. While she was walking towards the market, he stopped her and told her to get on his scooter, saying he would drop her to the market. As she agreed, Pappu lured her for a ride outside the city and went towards Jaunpur, where, after finding a secluded spot, he stopped the two-wheeler. He dragged the girl into the bushes nearby where he allegedly raped and strangulated her. The accused reportedly told the police that to ensure that she was dead, he slit her throat with a knife.

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