Minor girl raped, murdered in Lonavala hotel

The girl had gone to the hotel along with her family members to attend a wedding function on Sunday. She later went missing and her body with slit throat was found on the hotel’s terrace on Tuesday afternoon.

The minor girl was sexually assaulted, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Manoj Kumar Lohiya, while quoting an ‘advanced certificate’ issued by concerned medical authorities.

“We will get the postmortem report today. We are investigating the case on top priority. We have filed police complaint under relevant IPC sections,” Lohiya said.

The footage of CCTVs installed in the hotel is being examined and statements of the hotel staff and the people who attended the function are being recorded.

“We found that the CCTV camera on the terrace was not working, but two CCTVs installed at the gate were functional.

We are analysing the feeds. We have started recording statements of the persons who were there at the wedding ceremony, including hotel staff, catering staff and management,” he said.

Meanwhile, the victim’s father, hailing from Indapur tehsil in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, told reporters that they had come to attend a wedding at the hotel in Lonavala and their daughter went missing on Sunday night.

Alleging that police was not carrying out proper probe in the case, he said that when he first went to lodge the missing complaint on Sunday night, police refused to act immediately and instead asked him search for the girl on his own.

The hotel staff also did not cooperate with him in the search for his missing daughter, he further alleged.

“We could have save her had the police acted immediately,” the distraught father said.

Police have registered a case under IPC sections 376 (rape), 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping) and other relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in this regard.