Bengaluru: A man accused in a five-year-old girl’s kidnapping and murdering case was killed in an encounter with police in Karnataka’s Hubballi.
The accused, 35-year-old Nitesh Kumar, attacked a police team after he was caught him. Cops fired a warning shot, but he tried to run away when he was fatally shot, officials said. A policeman was injured during the operation.
Kumar also faced a case of rape under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“Nitesh Kumar’s hometown is Patna in Bihar. The police team was taking him to his place of stay to ascertain his identity when he attacked the team. In the process he damaged a police vehicle also… Meanwhile one of the police officers fired in the air, but he tried to escape. Two more rounds were fired at him. He was immediately taken to hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead,” Hubballi police chief Shashi Kumar told reporters.
It was female sub-inspector Annapurna shot the two rounds at the accused.
After Kumar had kidnapped the minor and killed her after allegedly sexually assaulting her, a large number of residents gathered at Hubballi’s Ashok Nagar police station, demanding justice.
The victim’s mother, who works as a house help and as an assistant at a beauty parlour, had taken her daughter to houses in the locality. An unidentified man took the girl from one of her mother’s work places..
“On searching, the girl was found in the bathroom of a small sheet-roofed building in front of the house from where she had gone missing. She was immediately shifted to a hospital, where she was declared brought dead,” a policeman said.
Police scanned CCTV footage and closed in on the accused.
