Mandya: A 10-year-old girl was raped and murdered by her tuition teacher who lured the child away on the promise of chocolate in Karnataka's Malavalli taluk of Mandya district on Tuesday. The accused Kantha Raju (52) was arrested by Malavalli town police.
The incident came to light after the relatives of the girl found the child's lifeless body in a water sump of an under-construction building along Mysuru Road in Malavalli town. They alerted the police who moved the body for a post-mortem examination. The police found suggestive sexual assault signs on the body which led them to Kantha Raju.
On sustained interrogation, the suspect admitted to have lured the child to a secluded spot offering her chocolates. "The unsuspecting child took the bait. He raped the 10-year-old-girl and murdered her. Then he dumped the body into the water sump and went back to the tuition centre and began teaching again," a police officer privy to the investigation said.
Police said the suspect had earlier called the girl and told her tuition was fixed at 11am. The victim informed her parents about her tuition schedule when she left home. Since the girl did not return home in the usual timing, the parents were worried and they began looking for her from the tuition centre.
Kantha Raju pretended to act as if he had not seen the girl and gave vague replies to the girl's relatives when they checked with him. In a bid to misdirect the attention from him, Kantha Raju joined the search. However, the suspect's pretense fell flat since he could not account for an alibi when the crime unfolded.
