7-year-old Attending Wedding at Lonavala Resort Found on Terrace with Throat Slit

Lonavala:

There have been angry protests in Maharashtra's Lonavala, where a seven-year-old girl was found on Tuesday with her throat slit, on the terrace of a resort where she had come for a wedding.

The police are going through the wedding video and are questioning the staff of the resort. An angry crowd of local residents on Wednesday vandalized the resort.

The girl, a Class two student, was attending a cousin's wedding with her parents on Sunday night and was missing for two days before her body was found rolled up in a carpet, behind a solar panel on the terrace.

Her father has been quoted in reports as saying she was partially vision impaired and insisted on coming for the wedding even though he was concerned that she could not see properly.

The wedding ceremony began on Sunday evening at Kumar Resort, owned by a former BJP legislator.

At around 9 pm, the family realized she was missing and, after looking for her, went to the police.

The girl's body was found on Tuesday morning by a resort employee who had gone to the terrace to clean a solar water heater. He found a rolled up carpet behind one of the solar panels. The child had cuts all over her body, her clothes were torn and her jewellery was missing.

Doctors at a Pune hospital said the girl had been sexually assaulted and murdered.

The girl's father alleges that she could have been saved if the resort management and police had acted fast.