Ghaziabad, March 18 -- A 24-year-old man allegedly raped and brutally killed a four-year-old girl, from his neighborhood, in Ghaziabad's Nandgram area. Police said that the accused lured her from home with the promise of chocolate.

Police on Wednesday, arrested the accused, a factory labourer, who was shot in the leg during retaliatory firing from police.

The child's body was found in bushes 500 metres from her home late Monday night following a call about a critically injured girl. 

Police rushed her to a hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival with severe head wounds.

Her father, a daily wage labourer, reported her missing around 7 pm after returning from work. Neighbours told him that the accused

had enticed her away.

Family and locals launched a frantic search, spotting the accused in an isolated farm around 8:45 pm. When confronted, he allegedly directed them ahead, where they found the girl in a

pool of blood.

During interrogation, the accused confessed to the rape and murder, claiming he killed her to cover the crime. He had wiped his blood-stained hands on a handkerchief and discarded it in nearby bushes, from where police

later recovered it.

In a dramatic twist early Wednesday, Prajapati fired an illegal weapon at police officials at the crime scene, prompting retaliatory shots to his legs in self-defence. Police seized the gun and cartridges; he was hospitalised in Ghaziabad.

Nandgram SHO Umesh Kumar said the postmortem showed 11 injuries: three head blows from a brick or stone, strangulation, smothering, bite marks, and private parts trauma confirming

sexual assault.

An FIR was filed at Nandgram station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence), with POCSO Act and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act provisions to follow.

DCP Dhawal Jaiswal cited swift action; ACP Ziauddin Ahmad said five teams probed. Locals protested, demanding strict punishment. The victim lived with her

father and siblings.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.