CCTV footage captured a suspect leading away a six-year-old girl from a wedding in India before she was raped and murdered.
Police said the child was led away from the venue in the city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday evening, according to the Times of India.
The footage dated 21 June shows a little girl in a white dress following a man out of a building.
They walk together along the street for a short while, before the child turns around and appears to run away from the man. But then she stops, returns to his side and follows out of the camera’s sight.
“The victim, who was sleeping beside her family members at the wedding venue, got up in the middle of the night as she felt thirsty," a police official told the Hindustan Times. "She went to a water point there to quench her thirst.
“When she did not return, her worried family members launched a search, but failed to find her.”
Conflicting reports suggested she was led away under the pretence of going for an ice cream.
Her family reported her missing half an hour later.
Her body was found the next morning about 500 metres from where she was taken, reportedly in some bushes.
“The accused first sexually assaulted her and then strangulated her to death,” the police official said.
The same CCTV, which was installed on a house near where the wedding ceremony took place, shows the suspect returning alone in the early hours of the morning.
“We are close to identification of the accused,” Gwalior SP Navneet Basin told TOI.
The investigation is ongoing.
According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, more than 4,882 rapes were recorded in Madhya Pradesh in 2016, with around half of victims under 18.
India recently approved the introduction of the death penalty for those convicted of raping children under 12 after several high-profile cases caused widespread outcry.
