The Ghaziabad police on Tuesday arrested a 19-year-old man who allegedly raped and murdered a five-year-old girl who was his relative. The police have added IPC sections of murder, rape, unnatural sex and destruction of evidence against the suspect who was arrested by the Muradnagar police.

According to police, the suspect is the cousin of the girl’s father and also their neighbour — they live in a locality falling under the jurisdiction of Muradnagar police station.

On the morning of March 7, the girl and her two siblings were the only ones at home while her parents had gone to meet relatives.

“When her family members returned, they found that the girl was missing. They began searching for her in the neighbourhood and also made public announcements from religious places in the area, but the girl could not be traced. Her body was found later in a sugarcane field, which is barely 400-500 metres from her house. The autopsy confirmed rape and the reason of death as strangulation,” an officer from Muradnagar police station, not authorised to speak to the media, said.

The girl’s body was discovered by locals on the morning of April 8, police said. Thereafter, the police formed teams and launched an investigation.

“We scanned the footage from all CCTV cameras in the area and in one of the footage, we saw the suspect taking the girl along with him — he was the one to be last seen with the victim. When we questioned him, he broke down and told us the entire sequence of events,” Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, SP (rural), said.

The police said the suspect took the girl to the fields where he sexually assaulted her and later strangled her to death.

First Published: Apr 10, 2019 06:32 IST