Chhattisgarh: Teen held for rape and murder of 8-year-old girl

The girl had gone missing on December 7, after which a kidnapping case was registered at Vidhan Sabha police station, he said.

Raipur:A teenage boy was held on Thursday for allegedly abducting, raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl in Raipur in Chhattisgarh, a police official said on Thursday. The girl had gone missing on December 7, after which a kidnapping case was registered at Vidhan Sabha police station, he said.

Her body was found on a vacant plot in Saddu locality just 500 meters away from the house on December 13 and the post-mortem report stated strangulation as the cause of death as well as the minor being sexually assaulted before the killing, said Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal.

"We have held a 14-year-old boy for abducting, raping and killing the girl. We had rounded him up for questioning based on leads from CCTV footage from the spot. During interrogation, he confessed to the crime," the SSP said. The accused has been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) and 201 (destruction of evidence) as well as relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the official said.

Agarwal said that the relatives had informed during the registration of the missing complaint that a boy from the neighbourhood was seen taking the girl with him in CCTV footage.

He also said that "the minor boy confessed that he was a porn addict and on December 7, he took the girl with him to a nearby colony on the pretext of playing and then he raped and strangulated her to death. The minor's father had also served a prison sentence after being booked under the POCSO act."

Meanwhile, BJP leader Sanjay Srivastava slammed the state government and said that "The crime in the state has increased and the credit goes to the Bhupesh Baghel government for turning Chhattisgarh into a crime den."