Agra: Three days after a seven-year-old girl was raped and murdered at a wedding ceremony in Etah district, a nine-year-old was found allegedly raped and killed in the district early on Friday morning.The crime was committed in a village under Aliganj police jurisdiction, while the victim and her family were attending the engagement ceremony of their neighbour’s son. The girl’s body was found at around 3:15 am in a field nearly 200 metres from her home.The victim’s father said, “She went missing from the ceremony at around 9pm. We found her body six hours later. She was raped and murdered by Pintu, a local youth who had come to help in preparations for the ceremony.”“My daughter was last spotted with Pintu by my niece who was on the roof during the ceremony. The heavily inebriated Pintu had asked my daughter to bring a glass of water, while he was waiting in the backyard of our home. As soon she brought water, Pintu forced her to come along with him to a field. Since we were all busy in the ceremony, we forgot to check where she was. At 10pm, when I enquired about her from other family members, none could tell me about her whereabouts,” the father added.According to the post-mortem report, the girl was strangled after being raped. Pintu, 25, a daily wage labourer, had no criminal history. Police have recovered the clothes he was wearing when he allegedly committed the crime, so as to match the DNA with residues found on the girl, officers said.Sanjay Singh, assistant superintendent of police, Etah, said, “We have arrested the accused named by the victim’s family and during interrogation, he has confessed to the crime.”Pintu was booked under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offenders) and POCSO Act.On an average eight women are raped and 30 abducted every day in Uttar Pradesh where more than 100 FIRs under the category of ‘crime against women’ are lodged daily.Amid nationwide protests against Unnao rape case, a review of recent incidents in which women were targeted shows that crime against women has gone up sharply between January 1 and March 31 in UP this year, compared to the previous two years.Data reveals 899 FIRs under rape charges have been lodged till March 31.

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