Ghaziabad: A week after a four-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered, police are yet to trace the main accused — her maternal uncle — and have now announced a Rs 25,000 reward for information leading to his capture.The uncle allegedly abducted the child from outside her home, raped her in his rented room, strangled her, and dumped the body under a parked car. Her body was found on April 11 night under a white car in Teela Mod area. By then, she had been missing for more than eight hours.According to the family, the girl, the second of three siblings, had been playing outside her house around noon, eating ice cream. Only she and her grandfather, who is blind, were at home at the time. The accused allegedly took her away, telling her he would buy her more things. Her parents, both daily wagers, began searching when the mother returned and found her missing.Police said the accused had rented a room near the girl’s house around a month ago and allegedly assaulted the child there. The autopsy confirmed rape and death by strangulation. Forensic teams collected evidence from the spot.DCP Dhawal Jaiswal said five police teams were working on the case and raids had been carried out in more than five districts, including Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Delhi-NCR. “He does not use a phone and has no social media account, which has made tracing him difficult,” he said.Police said they had scanned feed from more than 150 CCTV cameras. In some footage, the accused is seen with the girl. In another, he is allegedly seen carrying her body to dump it under the car. Cops said he was addicted to drugs and teams were checking parks and other places where he was known to frequent.An FIR has been registered against him under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offenders) and 65(2) (rape) of BNS and relevant provisions of the Pocso Act at Teela Mod police station.
