11-year-old girl’s throat slit in bathroom

JABALPUR: An 11-year girl’s throat was slit and she was left to bleed to death in a common bathroom in a housing unit in Jabalpur’s

Katra Bajranwada

locality on Monday morning.

Police have ruled out sexual assault and murder for revenge, leaving them with a grisly riddle and few clues to work on. Besides, the murder happened in a densely crowded locality, where the killer would have no more than a few seconds. In fact, another girl found the victim, Priya Singh, still alive and gasping for breath. Her head had been shoved into the commode. She was taken to hospital right away but had lost too much blood. Police have found bloody fingerprints and similar foot marks of an adult at the crime scene.

Priya’s family shared the bathroom with two other tenants. Her father said she had gone to take bath at 5am before she went out with a friend to visit a temple. “I heard some noises from the toilet but I ignored it, thinking it was a cat,” said her father

Prakash Singh

. Her friend was the next to enter the bathroom and was horrified to see Priya bleeding to death.

“As per primary investigations, it is apparent that the murder was not committed for sexual assault or revenge. Short post-mortem attributes the damage to windpipe as the cause of death. We have found fingerprints and used sniffer dogs that remained in the same locality,” said city SP Akhil Verma. Police sources said there is a single slit on her neck, and blood splattered the left walls of the toilet, indicating that the killer is right-handed. Police have rounded up some people for questioning. Prakash is a native of

Dhimerkheda

village in Katni district. Two other tenants live in the same house where he has taken a portion on rent, said Verma.