Man Held for 12-year-old Girl's Murder in Maharashtra's Thane

Thane: Police arrested a man in connection with the murder of a 12-year-old girl in Maharashtra's Thane district on wednesday.

The girl was allegedly kidnapped by an unidentified person at around 4 pm on Monday when she was playing outside her house in Kalyan town, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-III Kalyan) Atul Zende said.

The body was found near the wall of a graveyard at Bapgaon near Bhiwandi at about 10 am on Tuesday, he said.

The motive behind the murder was not yet known.

The body was identified by the girl's parents, who had lodged a missing person complaint at Kolsewadi police station in Kalyan on Monday evening after searching her for several hours.

Police initially registered an FIR under section 137 (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and launched a search to trace the girl.

During the probe into the crime, the police arrested a man and were searching for another person suspected to be involved in the crime, Zende said.

After the body was found on Tuesday, BNS section 103(1) (murder) was added to the case, Kolsewadi's senior police inspector Ashok Kadam told PTI.

"We are waiting for the postmortem report and if rape is detected, other penal sections will be added to the FIR," Kadam said.

Six teams have been formed to trace the other wanted accused, who is a habitual offender against whom several criminal cases are already registered, Zende said.