Police have arrested a man accused of the rape and murder of a minor whose body was found in sugarcane field here.
The accused has been identified as Lekh Ram.
Speaking to media, Superintendent of Police, (SP) Lakhimpur Kheri, Satyendra Singh said, "Yesterday four teams were formed after the incident was reported to nab the accused. The teams got information that the accused is somewhere near his former in-laws' house."
"When a team reached there, the accused was found running towards a sugarcane field. He fired at the police who fired back at him. He got a bullet injury in his leg. A police personnel is also injured," the SP said.
On being asked if the crime has a connection with any dispute in the past, the SP said, "In 2014, the accused's wife was murdered. In that case, the child's uncle went to jail and that case is still going on."
The SP said that the postmortem report has confirmed rape. The accused strangulated the minor after rape.
The body of a three-year-old girl was recovered from a field in Singahi area, Lakhimpur Kheri district on Thursday.
The deceased's father had approached police alleging a resident of the same village had taken the minor girl with him a day earlier and since then she had not returned home.
After an intensive search, the child's body was found lying barely 500 metres away from the house in a sugarcane field.
( With inputs from ANI )
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