The body of an 11-year-old girl was found buried in a field near her home in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur on Tuesday hours before she went missing while grazing goats, police said.
The child’s body was found roughly 300 metres away from her house.
Joint commissioner of police (law and order) Vipin Tada said one person is in custody and being questioned. There are other suspects on the police radar, he said.
The child’s father, a daily wage labourer, told police that his daughter had stepped out on
Monday evening to graze goats in nearby fields. When she did not return by evening, the family launched a search and alerted police. The search continued unsuccessfully through the night.
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On Tuesday morning, family members noticed freshly dug earth in a wheat field close to their home. On digging, they found the girl’s body, unclothed. A forensic team was called to the site before the body was found and sent for postmortem.
SHO Bidhnoo Tej Bahadur said police suspect the child was strangulated.
{{/usCountry}}SHO Bidhnoo Tej Bahadur said police suspect the child was strangulated.
{{/usCountry}}“One person has been taken into custody and is being questioned. The postmortem report will confirm whether sexual assault took place, following which formal charges will be filed,” he said.
The family has accused the detained neighbour of sexually assaulting the child before strangling her and burying the body in the field.