CCTV footage, petty fight: How Goa Police tracked down man accused of raping 4-year-old

CCTV images – and a petty fight that broke out in a taxi stand an hour later. These are the leads that helped the Goa Police arrest a 28-year-old man days after a four-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted in North Goa.

The minor, daughter of a daily-wage labourer, had gone missing around 6 pm on Sunday. Police said the accused, also a daily-wage labourer from Karnataka, allegedly kidnapped the girl between 8 pm and 9.30 pm that night, took her to the basement of a building and raped her. An FIR was registered against him under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, dealing with kidnapping and rape, as well as provisions of the Goa Children’s Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Police said the case was “blind” since the identity of the accused was not known. During the investigation, they scanned CCTV footage from cameras near the crime scene and questioned several witnesses to establish the sequence of events on the day of the incident. The victim’s father told police that his daughter had gone missing around 6 pm.

North Goa SP Rahul Gupta said a crucial lead emerged from CCTV footage in the area, which allegedly showed the accused luring the girl into the lane where the assault took place.

“From the CCTV, we found black-and-white footage where the accused could be seen. Another lead emerged when we found that a petty fight had broken out near the taxi stand the same evening, where the victim and her father and some of his acquaintances had been present. After questioning some people in the area, the accused was identified. It was found that he had been absconding from near the bus stand,” said SP Gupta.

Police said further investigation revealed that the accused had no digital footprint and did not use a mobile phone. “We found that he speaks only Kannada and usually loiters around the market and bus stand in Mapusa,” he said.

Several teams from the district police and the crime branch then began combing major market areas, bus stands and railway stations across the state. The accused was arrested around 7.30 am on Wednesday from a bus stand in Panaji, police said.

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“He was produced before a local court and remanded to police custody for five days,” SP Gupta added.

Police said they had recovered a bag allegedly belonging to the accused from the crime scene, along with the girl’s frock and a blanket.

Another alleged sexual assault of a minor

Police have arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl in South Goa.

According to police, the incident took place on Tuesday between 9.30 pm and 10 pm in a rented room in South Goa. Police said the minor’s statement was recorded and she underwent a medical examination. Following a complaint by the girl’s father, an FIR was registered.

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In a statement on Wednesday, Goa Police said the accused, a native of Bihar, had been arrested. Police said he lived in the same neighbourhood and allegedly lured the girl to a room on Tuesday night, where he sexually assaulted her.