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Updated: Dec 30, 2018 22:26 IST

In another instance of mob violence against police in Uttar Pradesh, three policemen and an elderly woman were injured on Sunday as protests against the murder of a five-year-old girl allegedly by a minor in Lucknow turned violent.

This was the third instance of policemen in the state being targeted this month. On December 3, police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed in mob violence triggered by the recovery of several cow carcasses in Bulandshahr district, while on Saturday, police constable Suresh Kumar Vats was killed and several others were injured as a protest by Nishad Party workers turned violent in Ghazipur, barely 15 kilometres from the venue of a rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day.

The girl, the daughter of a ragpicker-cum-scrap dealer, was murdered on Friday afternoon but her body stuffed in a sack and dumped in a drain in the Akbarnagar slums of Mahanagar area was found on Sunday morning, police said.

A case was registered and the 14-year-old boy was taken into custody while his father and elder brother were arrested.

The girl’s family alleged the girl was raped but no external injury was found on the private parts of the girl, the post-mortem report said. According to the report, death was caused ‘due to throttling’ and laceration marks were also visible on the throat. Vaginal swab has been sent for test to confirm whether she was sexually assaulted, district police spokesman Anil Kumar Singh said.

Protesting the incident, the girl’s family, along with other slum dwellers, blocked the Faizabad Road. The mob turned violent when police tried to disperse it. The protestors resorted to stone-pelting, injuring three police officers and an elderly woman after which the police carried out a baton charge.

Police teams from at least 15 police stations were called to the spot to control the situation, police said. The road remained blocked for three hours and traffic was diverted to other routes.

Circle officer, Mahanagar, Santosh Singh said the girl was last seen playing outside her house in the slum area at around 2pm on Friday and had been missing since thend.

He said the girl’s family suspected the teenager’s involvement behind the girl’s disappearance as he too was missing after the incident. He said the families of the girl and the boy stayed barely at a distance of 20 metres.

The CO said the boy, along with his father and elder brother, turned himself in on Saturday evening and confessed to committing the crime.

“As per the teenager’s statement, he strangled the girl in a fit of rage when she hit him with a stick while playing near her house. He stuffed the girl’s body in a sack and dumped it in the Kukrail drain flowing towards the Paper Mill Colony area and disappeared from his house,” the police officer said.

The police officer said initial probe suggested the boy was addicted to drinking cough syrups and the possibility of rape could not be ruled out . “We have sought a specific opinion from a team of doctors about it and charges of sexual assault will be included in the FIR, if necessary,” he said.

He said the minor was booked on charges of murder while his father and elder brother, who were aware of the murder, will be booked for concealment of crime.

Senior superintendent of police Kalanidhi Naithani too visited the spot to examine the situation and assured the girl’s family of stern action against the culprits.