A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered by a distant relative during a marriage function in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district, a senior police official said on Tuesday.
The crime took place in Tiletha village on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday and the 24-year-old accused was later arrested, Superintendent of Police Aman Singh Rathore told reporters.
Some villagers informed personnel at the Goraghat police station on Monday morning that the body of a girl was lying in shrubs near a canal in the village, he said.
On an inspection of the spot, it was found that the girl was allegedly raped and murdered, the official said.
During the course of investigation into the case, another minor told the police that a male relative of her initially tried to take her away while she was sleeping on a cot with the victim at the marriage function, but she ran away to her mother who was attending the wedding functions, he said.
Later, when that girl returned, she found the victim missing, he said.
The man, who was also a distant relative of the victim, was subsequently arrested.
The accused told the police that he took the victim, who was sleeping, behind the house and raped her, the official said.
The accused also told the police that he later killed the victim to hide the crime, Rathore said.
A case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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