A five-year-old girl was raped and bludgeoned to death allegedly by her cousin brother, also a minor, in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, police said on Sunday.
The incident took place on July 24 when the girl accompanied the accused to a forest near their village under Bagicha police station area for grazing of livestsock, an official said.
When the girl did not return home, her relatives launched a search for her. They approached the police after failing to trace her, he said.
The accused boy told police that he raped the girl and then killed her by smashing her head with a stone. He then threw the victim's body in a waterfall and returned home, the official said.
The body has been recovered from the forest and the boy was detained, he said.
The accused has been booked under sections 376 (Punishment for rape) and 302 (Punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the official said.