Palghar, October 30: An eight-year-old girl, who had gone to a friend's birthday party, was murdered after allegedly being raped by a man in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said on Wednesday. The police have arrested a 21-year-old son of a former sarpanch (village head) in this connection, an official said.

The victim, resident of a village in Mokhada taluka, went to the birthday party of her friend in the village on Sunday but did not return home. Her family members then carried out a search for her. The victim's body was found near a graveyard in the village late Sunday night. The police sent the bodyfor post-mortem and initiated a probe into the girl's death, Mokhada police station's assistant inspector Premnath Dhole said. Nagpur Horror: Man Rapes 9-Year-Old Girl in Maharashtra’s Pardi, Gives INR 20 to Victim’s Younger Sister To Stay Silent; Probe Launched.

A police probe team worked on various leads, including technical and intelligence inputs, and arrested the man on Tuesday, he said. The man allegedly stalked the girl on Sunday and then raped and murdered her at night, he said. The mother of the accused was earlier a local councillor, as per the police. Palghar Shocker: Minor Girl Allegedly Raped While Returning Home From Ganesh Utsav in Nalasopara; 2 Accused Arrested.

 

The accused has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 103(1) (murder), 65 (2) (rape of a female under 12 years of age) and 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state of the victim) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Dhole said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)