The case came to light when a mother could not find her six-month-old daughter after leaving her asleep at a school in Musahari village. After a police search the child's body was found buried nearby.

A few hours later, Amarjeet Sada, who police claim suffers from psychiatric disorders, apparently admitted that he had strangled her and led villagers to the spot where he had disposed of the body.

NDTV, a news channel, showed pictures of Amarjeet outside the local police station. The child allegedly crushed the little girl to death with a stone and buried her body. He was arrested and appeared in court earlier this week.

"She was sleeping in the school. I took her a little away, and killed her with a stone and buried her," he reportedly told police. Villagers claim Amarjeet is also responsible for the deaths of his sister and cousin but that the matter was hushed up.

The boy has been placed in a remand home in the nearby town of Munger. Under Indian law, a child cannot be sentenced to death or sent to prison, but can be detained at a children's home until they turn 18.

The frenzied reporting of the case highlights the growing trend in Indian media to focus on gruesome killings. Earlier this week the newspapers were filled with stories about a serial killer who dumped the headless bodies of his victims outside the main jail in Delhi. The man, reports said, had been arrested in a murder case in 1998 but acquitted four years later.