Man kills 8-yr-old girl after failed rape attempt in Cantt

A 19-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly kidnapping and murdering an eight-year-old girl, whose partially undressed body was found tied by the neck to a window grille in an abandoned building inside the Shankar Vihar Military Station in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar, after what appeared to be a rape attempt, police said.

Investigators said that the accused first strangled the victim and then tied her body by the neck to a window grille using her pyjamas in an attempt to pass off the death as suicide.

Senior police officers aware of the case said that the suspect was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, adding that he was a neighbour of the victim's family and that both lived in the servants' quarters in the residences of Indian army officers in the area.

The case came to light on Monday night when the girl did not return after leaving home to play outside at around 6pm. Officers said that police, the girl's family, locals and army officials looked for the girl for nearly seven hours, during which the suspect offered his assistance in the search operation.

The girl's parents and the suspect work as house help at the official residences of Indian army officers, they added.

The suspect first strangled the victim and then tied her body by the neck to the window grille using her pyjamas to pass it off as a case of suicide, they added.

He was nabbed from the locality after authorities scanned CCTV footage and found that he was seen leading her away from her house.