New Delhi: Fear stalks the streets of Haldoni village in UP’s Greater Noida. Parents refuse to allow their children out to play after a 6-year-old girl was raped and murdered 28 August allegedly by a relative’s tenant who lived next door. The accused Balraj is an accused in two previous rape cases.
On 28 August, the child went out of the house without informing anyone. Balraj convinced her to go with him to his house, where he allegedly raped and killed her. Neighbourhood CCTV footage which went viral after the incident shows the man taking the child inside and some time later walking out with a sack. He allegedly dumped the sack at a farm 500 meters away.
Senior police officers told ThePrint that for years, Balraj had allegedly preyed on the most vulnerable, including a 70-year-old woman, an eight-year-old child, and even animals. They too were allegedly abducted, raped and killed. Different victims, same pattern.
After eight years behind bars from 2017 to 2025 in cases of rape and murder, Balraj was released on bail in 2025. Just a few months later, he allegedly struck again.
“He was a serial rapist. A pervert. He would prey on the most vulnerable, ones who could not overpower him or defend themselves. Which is why he targeted elderly and children and even animals,” a police source said.
Village wanted Balraj to leave
The residents of Haldoni Village, an industrial neighbourhood, had complained about Balraj’s behaviour earlier. “He was living in this village for one year, and he had made it difficult for all of us. No woman would walk when he was outside, children would fear him as well. He used to consume alcohol and drugs regularly, and had made this quiet village a nightmare. Nobody spoke to him, he was extremely indecent,” said a resident of the village.
The day the 6-year-old girl went missing, a woman from Haldoni had complained about Balraj’s “indecent behaviour”.
“He went inside a neighbour’s bathroom, and pulled his pants down. He made abusive remarks to a woman from our family, and they all threw him out of the house. The entire village was shocked that he did something like this,” said the father of the deceased child.
The residents of Haldoni said they had complained to Tauseef, the child’s relative and Balraj’s ex-cell mate and landlord multiple times, asking him to ask Balraj to leave. “But Tauseef never agreed. He was the one giving shelter to this man. The entire village knew he was a rapist, and a murderer. He was a living and looming threat for every single person, and we all wanted him to leave. Tauseef became friends with Balraj when they met in jail. Since then, he had no problem with Balraj misbehaving with the local residents,” said another relative of the child.
The day of the attack on the child
On Friday, after the mother and her two daughters, aged 6 and 5, read ‘namaz’, the three went to sleep at around 2 pm.
“At 4 pm, I woke up, and my eldest daughter wasn’t home. I went and searched for her but she was nowhere to be found. I made multiple calls to people, knocked every single door, but nobody had any idea. We went to schools, bazaars, all the shops,” the mother told ThePrint.
The entire village of Haldoni then began looking for the child. They started scanning the CCTV footage. In one such CCTV video, the child could be seen standing next to Balraj. He is then seen walking with her to another house that belonged to Tauseef, barely 200 metres from the girl’s house.
“We were shocked. We asked Tauseef’s family, and they started looking with us. Balraj was nowhere to be seen,” said the girl’s mother.
In another CCTV video from a different lane, around 15-20 minutes later, Balraj was seen carrying a sack on his shoulder, and walking towards another neighbourhood in Haldoni. “We suspected something was wrong,” said the mother.
The family then filed a missing persons report and the search for the child continued. Five police teams were constituted to search for the girl. Through analysis of CCTV footage and other sources, police teams identified the alleged perpetrator, and found the girl’s bruised body at 3 am on 29 August, and sent it for a post-mortem examination.
The post-mortem is currently being conducted by a panel of doctors, with the entire procedure being videographed. Police officials and the FSL team have inspected the crime scene in Haldoni. The accused was taken into custody.
“During the interrogation, the accused revealed he lured the girl when most of the residents of the village were asleep. He took her to his landlord’s second house, where he raped her, and stabbed her to death. Police recovered the body and found bruises all over her face, neck, limbs, and private parts. He killed her and then left her body in the field,” said an officer who investigated the matter.
The family said by the time they saw the child’s body, it had started to decompose. “There was blood around her nose, and there were no clothes on her,” they said.
“I killed her because she was shouting too much in pain, while I raped her,” 45-year-old Balraj, who belongs to Bulandshehr, told investigators after his arrest on 29 August, adding that he then put her in a sack to dispose of the body.
“He had no remorse. When asked about the rape of children, he first tried to mislead us but later admitted that he raped the girl. The 6-year-old was brutally assaulted, her private parts sustained severe injuries and she was covered in blood when her body was recovered,” a police source said.
Balraj killed in encounter
Police said that on 29 August, Balraj was arrested by in the Ecotech-3 area of Greater Noida.
Following his arrest and subsequent interrogation, the accused revealed that he had hidden the knife used in the crime in the ‘Green Belt’ area near the D-Park police outpost, police said.
When the police team accompanied the accused to the spot to recover the weapon, Balraj stepped out of the vehicle and retrieved the knife from the nearby bushes. “Seizing the opportunity, he suddenly bent down quickly, picked up a .32 bore pistol that he had previously concealed in the bushes, and fired at the police team with the intent to kill; Head Constable Ravi Kumar, posted at Ecotech-3 Police Station, sustained injuries in the incident,” a senior police officer said.
In the ensuing retaliatory action, the accused was critically injured by gunfire. Both the injured Head Constable Ravi Kumar and the critically injured accused were rushed to hospital, where doctors declared Balraj dead.
One illegal .32 bore pistol, along with three spent casings and two live cartridges, were found on the body of the accused.
Police sources said that Balraj had been staying with Tauseef ever since he was out on bail because he had been disowned by his own family due to his criminal activities.
Balraj’s criminal past
“The locals said that Balraj did not even leave animals and sexually assaulted goats and cattle. No one, however, filed a formal complaint because they were scared,” a police source said.
According to police records, besides cases of rape and murder of minors and an elderly, Balraj had seven other cases of theft, attempt to murder, and Arms Act against him.
“He was arrested in 2017 and then remained inside jail for 8 years. As soon as he was released, he abducted and raped another child,” the source said.
“It is learnt that he misbehaved with the wife of his brother after which his family asked him to leave the house. Moreover, since the family was aware of his criminal history, they said they did not want to associate with him,” a second source said.
About Tauseef, who is in custody, a police source said: “Tauseef has cases of theft against him. Both had met in jail and that is how they started living together. Balraj had been staying with him for the last three months.”
A studious child
The deceased child went to a nearby school. The deceased’s child’s parents say that she was a sincere child, and would complete her homework every day. She used to love playing outside with all her friends.
“She loved to study, and have ice cream and pizza,” said her mother. “The day she went missing, I couldn’t even get time to comb her hair. She wanted to go out in the evening to eat food from outside…”
As the family comes to terms with the tragedy, they have many questions. “We had, on so many occasions, alerted Tauseef’s family, to remove Balraj. They didn’t. Now, due to police action, they fled the neighbourhood. We are angry. If my child was not safe, no child is safe,” said the mother.
‘Can’t send our children outside to play’
“None of us are sending our children to school, nobody is going out to buy chips. All kids are playing games inside their homes. As mothers, we don’t want to take any risk. Tauseef’s family has fled, and we don’t want them to take any revenge,” said a resident of the village.
Most of the kids in the neighbourhood sit in groups, with their mothers around. Those who had gone for tuitions, went with their mothers.
“What happened to one of the children here in this village has left us with shock, anger, and disgust. A man we had been seeing for such a long time, committed a crime so brutal. We are satisfied that he has died in an encounter killing. Had he walked free this time, just like he had in the past, he would have done this with other children and women,” said another resident.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: An empty bus, rain & 47 km detour: How a UP teen’s search for a ride ended in gangrape