Even as the country is facing wide-spread condemnation over rape cases in Kathua and Unnao, now another incident of the ghastly crime has been reported from Madhya Pradesh.

A man was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police for allegedly raping and killing an infant girl, who was sleeping outside the Rajwada fort in Indore. The parents of the infant were in the business of selling balloons.

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The age of the infant has not been confirmed by the authorities, as reports claim that she was four-month-old, while some reports said that she was six-month-old or 10-month-old.

The police has arrested the accused, who is the uncle of the minor, after scanning CCTV footage of the area. The accused has been identified as Sunil Bheel (21), who was seen carrying the infant girl to a basement of a building.

As per news reports, Sunil had an altercation with the mother of the infant before he committed the crime.

“The body of the infant was recovered from the basement of a commercial building in Rajwada. The accused, Sunil Bheel, had kidnapped her when she was asleep with her parents outside the Rajwada Fort. The accused was sleeping close to the family,” said HC Mishra, deputy inspector-general of police, Indore.

“The accused is seen carrying the infant in CCTV images of around in the morning. He then took her to the basement of the building, some 50 metres away from where the family was sleeping, and her body was recovered in the afternoon,” he said.

The post-mortem of the infant, which was carried out at the state-run MY Hospital, suggested that she might have been raped before being killed as her private parts bore an injury mark.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed his shock over the incident. He took to Twitter saying, the Indore incident has shaken me. Such a ghastly act on such a small child…our society needs to introspect. The administration has arrested the accused. We will ensure that the strictest of punishments is meted out. (Translated from Hindi)

आज मन बहुत व्यथित है, इंदौर की घटना ने आत्मा को झकझोर दिया है। इतनी छोटी बच्ची के साथ ऐसा घिनौना कृत्य। समाज को अपने अंदर झांकने की ज़रूरत है। प्रशासन ने त्वरित कार्रवाई करते हुए आरोपी को गिरफ़्तार किया है। हम सुनिश्चित करेंगे कि उसे जल्द से जल्द कड़ी से कड़ी सज़ा मिले।

— ShivrajSingh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) April 21, 2018