INDORE: A four-month-old baby was raped and murdered in the historic Rajwada area of

in the wee hours of Thursday. The infant’s body was found in the basement area of the heritage Shiv Vilas Palace, blood smears on the stairs telling a horror story.

Hardened policemen were nearly moved to tears as they conducted preliminary examination of the ravaged body and carried it away in a little bundle. A suspect, a member of the family, is in custody.

Police inspecting the spot where body of the girl was found.

The autopsy report confirmed the savage sexual assault, and said the infant died due to head injuries. SI Trolik Singh Varkade of Sarafa police station has been suspended for dereliction in duty. “The SI failed to inform seniors of the heinous crime in his area,” said DIG Harinarayanachari Mishra. Rajwada is Indore’s cultural and business nerve centre. The baby’s father sells balloons there and lives nearby. Like the Kathua victim’s family, this baby’s parents too are nomadic.

The baby was sleeping with her family on a porch outside Rajwada, when she was abducted. He took the girl right under the noses of patrolling policemen.

CCTV footage shows a man arriving in a cycle, picking up the girl and moving towards to a commercial complex built on a portion of Shiv Vilas Palace around 4.45am. He is seen returning to the spot alone.

Initially, police detained an acquaintance of the family but cleared him. The arrested suspect is a relative. Police have seized his bloodstained clothes and the cycle. “Policemen were in the area when the incident took place. But the four-month-old girl was sleeping with other men and women and the perpetrator was one of them. The policemen didn’t know that he was not a family member and had ill intentions,” the DIG said.

The infant’s mother told police that she had woken up around 3am and checked her children. Everyone was safe, she said. They realized she was missing when they woke up around 5.30am.

Indore baby died due to head injury

After looking around for some time, they lodged a complaint with Sarafa Police station.

Around 11.30am, the body was found barely 100m behind a statue of Rani Ahilya Bai Holkar, Indore’s legendary 18th Century ruler. It was shop assistant who first identified the baby.

Police found blood all over the basement area, including smears on a staircase leading upstairs to the ground floor. “We have a suspect and are questioning him,” said Mishra. The short post-mortem report indicates that the child died due to the head injury. “It suggests she was sexually assaulted before death,” the DIG said.