Nashik:
A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered by a family friend on the Mumbai-Agra national highway in Nashik, police said today.
The girl's body was found near the Meenatai Thackarey stadium in the city on Sunday, police said.
The seven-year-old had gone missing from her house on July 28.
The victim's parents told police that Yogesh Ramdas Khade, a family friend, had come to their house on Saturday evening and gone out with the girl.
Based on the information, police arrested Khade, who is already booked on charges of theft at Panchvati police station here, they said.
The girl's body was sent to Nashik Civil Hospital for postmortem, which confirmed that she was raped and then strangled, police said.