8-yr-old, bludgeoned her to death after rape: Cops

After the rape and murder, one of the accused returned to his home state in Rajasthan while another ran away to Viramgam in Ahmedabad, police said. Two of the accused had fled the city after the body was found, as they feared arrest, said Chaudhary.

The third accused was in Rajkot, Chaudhary said, adding the three men were nabbed based on intelligence inputs and technical surveillance.

She said the accused hail from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Two of them were working in a factory in Rajkot while the other one was a casual labourer. They are aged 24, 25 and 38. “The accused raped and murdered the girl by hitting her head with a stone. The accused killed the girl as they were known to her father and feared that she might tell him about them,” Chaudhary told reporters.

As per a release issued by the city crime branch, CCTV footage showed the girl walking with one of the accused on the night she went missing from her home.

The girl’s body was found near Bhaktinagar railway station on Saturday, a day after she was reported missing.

(With inputs from PTI)