Accused Suresh

CHENNAI: A 29-year-old city resident raped his 10-year-old neighbour and hurled her to death from the terrace of a two-storey building early on Saturday, police said and identified the accused man as Suresh. A court later sent him to jail.

Around 12.15am, a police officer said, the Class V student, who stayed on the first floor, stepped out of the residence and walked towards the washroom close to the staircase. Suresh, a construction worker who stayed on the second floor, was near the staircase when the girl came out of the washroom. Suresh, who was drunk at the time, forced the girl into his room and raped her after covering her mouth with his hand, the officer said, based on the man's confession statement.

As she slumped to the floor unconscious, Suresh took her to the terrace and flung her to the ground, into a clump of bushes at the rear.

Around 1am, the victim's parents woke up and found their only child missing. They screamed for help and some neighbours, including Suresh, joined them in their search.

The child's parents rushed to Maduravoyal police station around 3am on Saturday. A police team led by inspector Radhakrishnan spotted the girl's body from behind the building, and sent it to KMC hospital for autopsy.

Suresh held for murder, under Pocso Act

As the terrace had a four foot-high parapet, police ruled out the possibility of the child falling from the terrace. As there were evidences of sexual assault, police started questioning the neighbours. Suresh, who denied the crime, later confessed to it, said police.

Suresh’s family had been staying at the rented house for the past one year and he was working as a labourer at a construction site near his house. Suresh’s wife had left for her parents’ house in Kolathur around 8.30pm on Friday as their children were studying at a school there.

According to police, Suresh had hurled the child to the ground from the terrace to make it look like an accident.

The girl’s father was working in a private firm, and mother a homemaker. She was their only child. The Maduravoyal police have registered a case of murder and slapped Pocso case on Suresh. He was produced before a magistrate court in the city and remanded to Puzhal prison.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

