MEERUT: On Sunday, Saharanpur policemen were jolted by the confession of three men to a brutal crime that involved the gang rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. The men said that they had kidnapped the girl from Qutubsher area around 8 pm on December 5. Two of them drove off with her on a motorcycle, and brought her to a friend’s house, where they took turns raping her. As she cried at the top of her voice, the men were scared they would be discovered. They strangled her to death and hid the body. Two days later, early on December 7, they dumped the body in bushes.The three accused, Indrajit, Shiv Kumar and Dharamvir, admitted their crime to police while under interrogation.As her family took a complaint to police saying the girl had gone missing, policemen went out in search of her. Sniffer dogs located the body in the bushes and also helped zero in on one of the three accused.A statement issued by Saharanpur police said, “On December 5, the girl went missing from Labour Colony, Qutubsher. She was visiting her uncle at the time. The local police station registered a case under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the IPC. On December 7, we found a body in the bushes behind Pooja Enclave. We called the girl’s uncle, who had filed the case, to identify the body. Saharanpur police then decided to form three teams to nab the accused.”The police statement said sniffer dogs followed the trail of the scent to a small hut 200 metres from where the body was dumped. That was where one of the accused, Dharamvir alias Mirchi, was arrested.Under interrogation, Dharamvir confessed to the crime and admitted to the involvement of the two others. He said that the girl screamed so loudly that the three were scared people passing by might hear her and discover the crime.Appreciating the prompt action in this case that led to the arrests 72 hours after the crime was committed, Saharanpur SSP RPS Yadav announced an award Rs12,000 for the police team.