Rape-Murder Accused Held After Encounter With Prayagraj Police

Prayagraj: A man accused of raping and bludgeoning a minor girl to death was arrested after a gunfight with the police here in which he sustained injuries, officials said.

The gunfight took place in Soraon police station area of Prayagraj district on Tuesday night, a senior officer said.

DCP (Ganga Nagar) Kuldeep Singh Gunawat said that on October 4, police received information that the body of a girl was lying in the field.

A police team inspected the spot and the body was sent for postmortem in which the rape of the girl was confirmed, he said.

"Five police teams were formed to uncover the incident and footage of 150 CCTV cameras was scanned and more than 65 suspects were questioned. During this time, a cyclist was seen taking away the girl in a CCTV footage," the DCP said. 

Gunawat said teams identified the person as Mukesh, a local resident. He was being searched by the police.

The accused had given a lift to the girl on his bicycle on October 3 and subsequently raped and killed her, the officer said.

"An information was received late on Tuesday night that this person was present near the highway in Judhapur Dadu. On this information, the police team reached there and proceeded to take him into custody. Meanwhile, the person opened fire on the police team with a pistol," he said.

"In the retaliatory firing, the accused was shot in the leg and he was sent to the hospital," the officer said and added that the accused confessed to the crime during questioning.