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Updated: Apr 24, 2020 13:14 IST

A 21-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping, raping and damaging the eyes of a six-year-old girl in a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district, police have said.

The girl was kidnapped on Wednesday evening from outside her house in the village under Jabera police station in Damoh district, 264 kilometres northeast of state capital of Bhopal, in Bundelkhand region.

“During the interrogation by police, the youth confessed to having committed the crime. He has been booked under 363, 366, 376, 307 (sections of the Indian Penal Code) and certain sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,” Anil Sharma, the inspector general of police of Sagar zone, said on Thursday evening.

Hemant Chauhan, Damoh’s superintendent of police, said, the girl went to a shop in the village to buy some eatables when she was reported missing. Her parents and other family members made a frantic search for the girl whole night and lodged a missing report with Jabera police station on Thursday morning when they could not find her.

“The girl was later found in a field outside the village with both her hands tied on her back. There was bleeding from both her eyes…The girl was referred to Bundelkhand Medical College where her condition was stated to be serious,” Chauhan said.

“A special investigation team (SIT) has been lodged and an announcement of Rs 10000 made on the arrest of the criminal,” he added.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the rape of the “innocent girl is shameful and unfortunate.”

“I have issued instructions for the arrest of the criminal at the earliest. All possible treatment will be provided to the girl,” he said.

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Kamal Nath, the president of the Congress state unit, attacked the government over the rape of the girl.

“People are not able to move out of home for even essential items due to lockdown restrictions but criminals are moving freely and with impunity in the state. There are rapes, murders, stabbing and firing going on across the state. This is in just one month of the BJP government,” Kamal Nath said.

The senior Congress leader demanded immediate arrest of the criminals involved in the crime and free and best treatment to the girl.

This is the latest in the crime against women in the state during the lockdown to break the chain of coronavirus infections in the country.

A 53-year-old blind bank manager was raped in her apartment by an unidentified man in Bhopal’s Shahpura area on April 17.