mumbai

Updated: Apr 11, 2018 01:02 IST

A 20-year-old labourer was arrested from Bihar for allegedly killing a four-year-old girl in Bhiwandi.

Police said Abid Mohammed Ajmir Shaikh had borrowed money from the girl’s father, Mahadev Prasad, 30. When he told Prasad that he could not return the money, the latter had slapped him. Prasad’s daughter Payal laughed when her father slapped Shaikh, which upset him.

The police said the girl went missing on April 1 and the next day a kidnapping case was lodged with the Bhoiwada police station. On April 4, the police found her body in the bushes, around 300m away from her house. Her hands had been cut.

A police officer from Thane commissionerate said, “We came to know that Shaikh had taken Rs1,500 from Mahadev and Shaikh was not able to return. A month ago, Mahadev and Shaikh fought over the money. Mahadev slapped Shaikh and the girl laughed at him. Shaikh then hatched a plan to kill the girl and teach Mahadev a lesson.”

The police said Shaikh had been carrying a knife every day for the past one month.

Deputy commissioner of police from Thane commissionerate said Sunil Bhardwaj said, “After the girl went missing, Shaikh continued going to work. He fled to Bihar after we found the body.”

A police team was sent to Supaul in Bihar where Shaikh was hiding. Bhardwaj added, “We have not found the girl’s hands and the weapon used to kill her.”

Shaikh came to Bhiwandi three months ago in search of a job and had been working in a powerloom unit.

The girl’s mother, Sonidevi, is inconsolable. “I have stopped letting my children go out and play.”