8-Yr-Old Girl Raped and Murdered in Palghar; Son of Ex-Sarpanch Held

Palghar: An eight-year-old girl, who h gone to a friend's birthday party, was murdered after allegedly being raped by a man in Maharashtra 's Palghar district, police said on Wednesday.

police have arrested a 21-year-old son of a former sarpanch (village he) in this connection, an official said.

victim, resident of a village in Mokha taluka, went to birthday party of her friend in village on Sunday but did not return home.

Her family members n carried out a search for her.

victim's body was found near a graveyard in village late Sunday night. police sent bodyfor postmortem and initiated a probe into girl's death, Mokha police station's assistant inspector Premnath Dhole said.

A police probe team worked on various les, including technical and intelligence inputs, and arrested man on Tuesday, he said.

man allegedly stalked girl on Sunday and n raped and murdered her at night, he said.

mor of accused was earlier a local councillor, as per police.

accused has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 103(1) (murder), 65 (2) (rape of a female under 12 years of age) and 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state of victim) and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Dhole said.