BELGAUM: A 22-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl and dumping her in a garbage bin in the district.

According to police, she has suffered grievous internal and head injuries, and her condition is serious.

Police said Shivanand Balemali, from Hukkeri taluk’s Bade village, lured the girl with a bar of chocolate to an isolated place and raped her on Monday. In panic after committing the crime, he reportedly left her in a garbage bin.

The girl’s parents noticed that the child was missing for a long time, and didn’t suspect anything amiss as she had gone with Shivanand, who is part of the extended family. When she didn’t return home till late evening, they confronted Shivanand. Under intense questioning by her parents, he revealed that the child is in the bin.

When the parents rushed there, they came to know that the girl had been raped. Villagers handed over the assailant to police. A team of doctors and specialists is treating the girl at Belgaum’s KLE Hospital and performed a surgery on her. The girl’s father Prakash said the accused must be tried without delay and “handed the maximum punishment of death so that such horrific incidents do not recur”.