A sketch of the suspect released by the police

Patna, April 24: Police today released the sketch of the man who allegedly tried to rape and then killed a 10-year-old girl in the capital.

Sources said three days after the semi-naked body of the girl was discovered from an onion field, 2km from Patna Sahib railway station, the police have tracked down the man who was seen chatting with the girl and her brother at the station on the afternoon of April 20.

The mother of the children had seen the man before she went to the washroom at the station. When she returned, she found the children missing. The family resides in Khagaria district. Police sources told The Telegraph today they suspected the man was a rickshawpuller in the Patna Sahib area. “We made the sketch based on the description given by the mother. This man is our prime suspect. We have traced him and he will be arrested anytime now,” a police officer told The Telegraph.

He added: “We are raiding several areas in search of the accused. Once he is nabbed, the truth will be revealed.”

The cops are yet to get the post-mortem report.

The source said the doctor conducting the post-mortem examination had told the police that the girl was “not raped though the murderer had tried to outrage her modesty”.

“We have not seen the post-mortem report yet. But the doctors said the girl was not raped. It was only an attempt to outrage her modesty. We suspect only one person was involved in the crime. The motive for killing the girl is, however, unclear,” said the police officer.

Sources added fear of getting identified was the only viable reason for the murder.

“This can be the only reason. The man was scared the girl would identify him. Killing the girl may have always been a part of the plan. The girl’s brother, just a-year-and-half-old, was spared as he was not a threat to the man,” another policeman said.

However, the reason why the man took the brother along was confusing.

“There could be a reason for that as well. The man could have taken the brother along with the girl, fearing the child may start crying. The station was crowded and the man could not risk attracting attention. So he took both the children to give the impression that he was their guardian,” the policeman added.

The family — mother and children — had come to the Patna Sahib railway station with two other women on Wednesday morning to buy cosmetics.

“We are poor people. We buy cosmetics from Patna City and then travel to different villages to sell them. We came here in the morning and went around the market for business. We returned to the station by 4pm as we had to catch the train to Khagaria,” the grieving mother told The Telegraph.

The women, along with the two children, were waiting on the platform. “I saw one youth playing with my son. He was listening to some song on his mobile, my son was excited and the man showed the phone to him and my daughter. It was around 5.30pm then and the platform was crowded. I went to the bathroom around 6.30pm and came back after 10 minutes to find my children missing. I asked my companions but they said hadn’t noticed anything because of the crowd,” she said.

The three women began a frantic search for the children in and around the station.

“Our search continued for more than an hour. But they couldn’t be found anywhere. We came back to the station premises and went to the Government Railway Police (GRP) station which recorded a missing persons diary and also made a public announcement about my children. I sat through the night hoping for their return,” she said.

The next morning the police recovered the body of the girl from a field in the Karmali Chak area. The brother was found beside the dead body in the onion field where both of them had been lured.

Meanwhile, the incident took a political colour this morning with CPI (ML) members protesting against police inaction in front of the GRP station.

The men, who had also brought the family of the victim along, demanded the suspension of the station house officer of the police station and action against the accused.