Jaipur (Rajasthan), August 19: Pressurised due to vociferous protesters, who had given the police an ultimatum to arrest the accused by Friday 8 pm, Jaipur (Rural) Police arrested Suresh, the 25 year-old-man who had allegedly raped and then murdered a 4 year-old-child.

The minor girl had gone missing since Wednesday; Suresh had allegedly raped her and then choked her to death, by the pond-side in Jaipur.

After successfully nabbing the accused, SP (Rural) Jaipur, Shankar Dutt Sharma said, “The incident took place on Wednesday evening when the accused tempted a four-year-old girl to ride pillion with him, reassuring her to take her to the family byre. He abducted the girl and took her to a nearby pond where he allegedly raped her before killing the victim. The accused Suresh Balai was a regular passer-by and hence familiar to the victim.

The girl’s father had already left for the barn, which was hardly a few kilometers away from their residence. She too wanted to join him there but unfortunately she met the accused en-route.

Prima facie death appears to be due to strangulation, but the police is awaiting the post mortem report of the medical board to ensure the exact cause of death and other injuries on the victim’s body. A full-fledged manhunt was deployed to nab the culprit, comprising of around 700 police personnel, three additional SPs, five Deputy SPs and 26 SHOs, who seemed to have already received news about the dragnet.

“The team adhered to Suresh’s trail after multiple circumstantial pieces of evidence pointed out his involvement in the crime. Tracking him was an arduous task because he didn’t use a mobile phone,” explained Sharma.

The locals protested when the news spread and had given Police time till 8 pm of Friday to nab the culprit. The police later requested the protesters to finally claim the body as the accused was arrested after a grueling 15 hours manhunt.

A compensation of 2.5 lakh has been announced for the victim’s family, said the officials. “This is an extremely execrable crime; therefore we will submit a charge sheet as early as possible. We have also finalised a special prosecutor to take the case,” added Sharma.

In a separate incident, a 24-year-old man was also arrested on Friday for kidnapping and allegedly raping a minor girl in Barmer district of Rajasthan.

“The incident happened on August 11, when the minor girl took her goats for grazing to a nearby field; the accused came there, dragged her to a secluded place, tied her up and raped her multiple times,” said Seema Chopra, Deputy Superintendent of Police.

The victim’s parents and other local residents searched for the girl everywhere then finally found her in an unconscious condition on the outskirts of the town on Wednesday.

Medical report of the girl is still awaited but based on the complaint, the accused has been booked under Protection of Children from Sexual offenses (POCSO) Act, SC/ST Act, Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 and 342.