more-in The Mangadu police filed a chargesheet against a suspected paedophile who raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in Mugalivakkam in February this year. Police sources said the Mahila Court in Chengalpattu is likely to take up the case for trial in a week. “Things are on track. The trial will start next week,” said a senior police officer. However, a sessions court in Chengalpattu granted him bail on the ground of statutory provisions and he is set to come out of jail soon. Originally, the Mangadu police began investigation into a complaint lodged by the father of a child who had gone missing. Two days later, the burnt body of the girl was found near a bush in Pallavaram. Police arrested 22-year-old Daswant, an engineer who was the family’s neighbour. He had allegedly raped and killed the girl. Police said that on February 5, when her parents were away, Daswant lured the child who was playing outside, and raped her. When she raised an alarm, he killed her, hid her body in his house for a day and took it out in a travel bag unnoticed by anyone in the flat, and threw it under a bridge. The next day, he went back to the spot and burnt the body. Posing as a passerby, he also alerted the police control room. The accused had also spoken to a television crew regarding the brutal crime before he was arrested. The CCTV footage and other evidence prompted the police to suspect Daswant and subsequently, he was arrested. Now, he has beencharged under Sections 302 (Punishment for murder), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 5 (Aggravated penetrative assault) and 5 (Punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.On March 23, he was detained under the Goondas Act. Detention order quashed On Tuesday, the Madras High Court quashed the preventive detention order passed by the Commissioner of Police under the Goondas Act against Daswant on the grounds that there had been unexplained and inordinate delay caused by authorities in considering a representation from his father.

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