One person has been arrested in connection with the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri earlier this week, district police chief Satendar Kumar said on Wednesday evening. Mr Kumar also said the suspect had "confessed" to the crime and that police had cross-verified his statements.
According to the police, the suspect, who has been identified as Dilshad, supplied materials to a tailor shop where the girl used to get her clothes stitched. Police have said the two used to speak to each other over the phone.
On the day of the incident, the police claim, the accused stalked the girl and raped and murdered her while she was on her way back home.
The young girl's mutilated body was found near a dried-up pond, around 200 metres from her village. The police had initially said the girl appeared to have been killed with a sharp weapon and that she had sustained injuries to her neck.
Police chief Satendar Kumar later said the post-mortem report had confirmed rape as well.
According to relatives of the girl, she left home on Monday to visit a neighbouring town to fill up a scholarship form. However, when she did not return the family informed the police.
"I really don't know what to say or whom to suspect. She left around 8.30 AM on Monday. We do not suspect anyone," her uncle told the media.
This is the second rape and murder of a teenage girl from this district in the past 10 days.
On August 15, a 13-year-old girl was raped and killed. Her body was found in a sugarcane field that belongs to one of the accused. Two men from her village have been arrested.
Her father alleged his daughter had been strangled, and had her eyes gouged out and her tongue cut off.
The police said the post-mortem report, which was released a day later, did not show her eyes had been gouged or that her tongue was cut out. The police said the autopsy did mention rape and strangulation.
On Wednesday, in a tweet addressed to UP Governor Anandiben Patel, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wrote: "Respected Governor, situation of law and order for safety of women has become very bad. A girl was on her way to fill up an online form in Lakhimpur when she was raped and killed. Such incidents are happening everyday now. I hope you will understand the seriousness of the situation and take the matter into consideration".
