When a resident of Bengaluru’s Janashakti Layout caught a whiff of a foul smell in his neighbourhood on Sunday evening, he decided to follow it to the house which was giving out the smell. 

The smell led to the house of a man named Anil in his neighbourhood. Suspecting that Anil was hiding something, the neighbours informed the police. On breaking open the lock, the neighbourhood was horrified by what the police found--the charred remains of a six-year-old girl that was stuffed inside a carton box.

“There was a foul smell coming from the house even before we could open the door. When we found the carton, the girl’s body was burnt and beginning to decompose. Preliminary investigation directs us to believe that the girl was raped and then murdered. It remains to be ascertained if she was burnt alive or if he killed her and then burnt the body,” said Girinagar Police Inspector, Kotresh.

The six-year-old was reported missing by her parents Shivakumar and Saraswathi, who are daily wage labourers, last Wednesday. 

“The girl was studying in class I and had not returned home that day. The couple had filed a missing persons complaint on Thursday, after looking for her for several hours,” Inspector, Kotresh said

Anil, who hails from Gulbarga district’s Kalburgi, lived right next to the victim’s house. He lived alone and was working in a private firm in Bengaluru.

Police said that the neighbours last saw Anil on Wednesday night when he was leaving home and he has not been seen ever since. The police have formed two teams to look for him. Prima facie, a case of rape and murder has been filed against Anil at the Girinagar Police Station.