LAHORE/ SARGODHA: Sargodha police said on Tuesday they had arrested four suspects in the murder case of a seven-year-old girl, whose body was found in a shop.

The prime suspect in the case has been accused of trying to rape the girl before killing her. According to the first information report (FIR), the criminal acts were committed at the behest of the three other suspects.

A statement by Sargodha police on X said the prime suspect, the owner of the shop where the girl’s body was found, and two others had been arrested in the case.

Police and the Crime Control Department (CCD) were investigating all aspects of the case, the statement added.

While the police statement confirmed the arrest of four suspects, Sargodha District Police Officer (DPO) Sohaib Ashraf told Dawn that a fifth suspect had also been taken into custody. However, he did not share further details about charges against the fifth suspect or his involvement in the case.

Meanwhile, Civil Judge Imran Farooq of a court in Sargodha granted CCD six-day physical remand of the prime suspect.

A senior CCD official told Dawn that initial DNA test results revealed a match with the prime suspect. He added that the suspect had confessed during interrogation to sexually assaulting and killing the girl.

The FIR

The arrests in the case were reported a day after City Police in Sargodha registered an FIR on the complaint of the girl’s father.

The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, has been registered under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape or a minor), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for a shorter term) and 109 (punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The FIR quotes the complainant as saying that his daughter had gone to a kiryana store to buy some items, and that she often visited that shop. He told police he was worried when his daughter did not return and went to the shop along with some others.

“When we asked the shop owner about my daughter, he did not answer,” the complainant said, adding that he and others accompanying him then went to the shop’s third floor, where they saw the prime suspect.

“Upon seeing us, he threw away a knife he was holding and fled,” the complainant said. He added that he then went to his daughter, “who was breathing her last”.

The complainant accused the prime suspect of murdering her daughter after attempting to rape her.

He further alleged that the crime was committed at the behest of the shop owner and two other suspects, adding that he had an argument with the shop owner two days before the incident. The complainant alleged the shop owner had threatened him and said he would teach him a lesson for life.