A 3-year-old tribal girl, who had been kidnapped by a youth four days back, was found dead in a forested area in Sambalpur district of Odisha on Sunday. Police said the youth, who had been absconding, dumped the girl in the forest after raping and murdering her. On October 3, the 30-year-old youth, a vagabond, came to the girl’s house in Budhiapali-Mundapada village in the district, about 350 km west of Bhubaneswar, when she and her 5-year-old brother were alone while their daily wage labourer parents were out on work. The youth gave the children some chocolates, sent the boy out on some pretext and then kidnapped the girl promising her more eatables.

The girl’s parents lodged a complaint with the police after some villagers informed them about seeing the girl with the youth. After frenetic search of four days, the police and villagers found the girl’s body in a forest, about seven kilometres from the village.

“Preliminary investigation has pointed to suspected rape and murder. We are however waiting for the post mortem report,” Sambalpur additional superintendent of police DK Deo told Hindustan Times.

In another similar case, on September 3 Sambalpur police had arrested a 28-year-old youth for raping and murdering a 8-year-old girl. Creating a rare record in Odisha’s judicial history, a court has convicted the youth in just 29 days of the crime.