Rampur: Body of missing 6-year-old found, police arrest man after ‘encounter’

“Nazil was shot at when the police team went to arrest him and he fired at the policemen with a countrymade pistol. Police retaliated and Nazil sustained three gunshot injuries in his leg and thigh. He has been admitted at a government hospital in Meerut. No policemen was injured in the firing,” Rampur Superintendent of Police (SP), Ajay Pal, told The Indian Express.

The SP said that they went to search for Nazil on Saturday evening after the body was recovered as the residents had earlier informed them that the accused was seen carrying the girl on his motorcycle the day she had gone missing.

“After the body was recovered, the victim’s family told us that they suspect a youth named Nazil. The body was found at an abandoned house in the neighbourhood when some boys playing there spotted it. The body was highly decomposed and we sent it for a medical examination. We suspect the girl was raped because her clothes were not found on her,” the SP said.

“The accused raped the girl and then strangled her,” Pal added. Nazil has been booked under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 302 (murder), and under relevant section of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.