One more: nine-year-old strangled after rape in UP

Four days after an eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped before being strangled to death in Uttar Pradesh's Etah district, about 300 kilometres from here, yet another child fell prey to a sex predator in the same district.

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a cook before being strangled to death in the Aliganj area in the district on Thursday night, according to the police sources.

The victim had gone to a wedding function with her parents, when she was lured by the cook, who was part of the catering team, to a secluded place and raped her.

The cook, identified as Pintu, later strangled the child to death.The body of the child was recovered around dawn from the fields a few metres away from the venue of the function.

The culprit was, however, nabbed by the police after one of the guests at the function said that he had seen the girl with Pintu.

It was the second incident of rape and killing in the district in the past four days.

Earlier, an eight-year-old girl was raped before being strangled. Even then the victim had gone to attend a wedding function with her parents. Acting swiftly, the police nabbed the alleged culprit, who reportedly admitted to committing the crime.

The incidents come close on the heels of the brutal rape of an eight-year-child in Jammu's Kathua region and the rape of an 11-year old girl in Gujarat triggering a nationwide outrage.