Angry mob tries to storm Bhopal police station over 12-year-old girl's murder

A crowd tried to storm Bairagarh police station demanding custody of the murder accused. The unrest underscores public anger as police await the post-mortem report.

In Short

• Mob storms police station demanding accused's handover or hanging
• 12-year-old girl's body found in abandoned building, suspect arrested
• Accused, Mobin Khan, confessed; police collecting forensic evidence

An angry mob tried to storm a police station in Bhopal on Saturday, demanding that a 23-year-old man arrested for the murder of a 12-year-old girl be handed over to them or hanged. The protest also saw residents block traffic and surround the Bairagarh police station, prompting police to deploy additional personnel to prevent the situation from escalating.

The protest erupted a day after police found the girl's body inside an abandoned building behind Krishna Complex in Bairagarh. Despite the arrest of the accused, identified as Mobin Khan, the victim's family and local residents continued to demand severe punishment for the alleged crime.

Family members, local residents and members of the community who collect scrap gathered on Saturday, raised slogans and demanded the death penalty for the accused. As the crowd swelled outside the police station, police personnel shut the gates and prevented protesters from entering the premises.

Police officers remained at the spot as tensions rose, while the authorities appealed to the protesters to maintain peace.

According to police, the 12-year-old girl lived in a slum settlement on Bairagarh Phatak Road and collected waste plastic for a living.

The girl left home around 8 pm on Thursday. According to her family, she had gone out to watch a religious tableau but did not return. After searching for her, the family filed a missing person complaint with the police late that night.

Police found her body on Friday morning on the third floor of an abandoned building behind Krishna Complex in Bairagarh. The body was reportedly wrapped in a blanket.

The discovery shocked the locality and triggered outrage among residents and the victim's family.

Police arrested Mobin Khan, a 23-year-old mechanic, in connection with the murder and registered a case. According to the local report, the accused confessed to the crime during questioning.

Police and a Forensic Science Laboratory team visited the crime scene on Friday and collected evidence. Preliminary information indicated that someone had stuffed a piece of cloth into the girl's mouth. Investigators also reportedly found pieces of clothing, suspicious material and fragments of an iron rod at the site.

Police are investigating whether the girl was sexually assaulted. However, officers have not confirmed sexual assault and are awaiting the post-mortem report to establish further details.

Investigators are also trying to determine the motive behind the murder and reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the girl's death.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police for Zone 4 Sanjeev Pathak told news agency Press Trust of India on Saturday that police had recovered the girl's body from the abandoned building and were questioning the suspect.

Pathak said police would take further legal action after receiving the post-mortem report

- Ends
With inputs from Dharmendra Sahu