In a shocking incident, a three-year-old girl was allegedly hacked to death before being raped in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district, about 150 kilometres from here.
According to the police sources here, the blood-stained body of the victim, a resident of a village under Singahi police station in the district, was recovered from the fields on Thursday.
Sources said that the child had gone missing on Wednesday and a report was lodged with the police in this connection. The father of the victim had also named a man, who he suspected of being involved in the girl's disappearance.
On Thursday, the locals found the body of the victim in the fields and informed the cops. The postmortem revealed that her throat had been slit by a sharp-edged weapon and that she was also sexually assaulted.
Sources said that the accused, a resident of the same village, was nabbed on Friday. He was being interrogated, the police added.
Police said that an old enmity between the accused and the victim's father might be behind the incident.
Incidentally, it was the third case of rape and murder in the district in the past three weeks.
Barely a few days back, a 17-year old girl was raped and murdered in the district. Her body was also recovered from the fields a few metres away from her village.
In another similar incident, a 13-year old girl from SC community was strangled to death after rape in the district.
The opposition leaders slammed the state government over what they alleged ''complete collapse'' of the law and order machinery in the state.