A case was filed after the victim went missing from her house on March 18 (Representational)
An 11-year-old girl, who went missing a week ago, was raped and later murdered in Surat district of Gujarat, police said on Tuesday.
Two persons, originally hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, were arrested in connection with the gruesome crime, they said.
The victim went missing from her house on March 18 after which the police filed an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 363 (kidnapping) on a complaint and formed multiple teams to locate her, Superintendent of Police (Surat Rural) Hitesh Joysar said.
On March 23, the girl's semi-naked body was found dumped in shrubs near the locality where she lived, he said.
Doctors later confirmed the girl was raped before being murdered, Joysar told mediapersons.
"To solve the crime, more than 15 police teams were formed which surveyed over 600 houses and nabbed two suspects who later confessed to having committed the crime," he said.
The duo lived in the girl's neighbourhood and had skipped work on the day when she went missing, said the SP.
The accused -- Deepak Kori (23), who hails from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, and Anuj Paswan (23), a resident of Palamu in Jharkhand -- were booked under IPC sections related to murder, rape destruction of evidence, and also provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.
The accused sexually assaulted the girl and then murdered her out of fear of being caught, the police officer said.
"Police will collect evidence against them and file a chargesheet on time by involving a special prosecutor to ensure they get the strictest possible punishment," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)