NAVI MUMBAI: A Raigad crime branch team arrested a 27-year-old resident of Khopoli town for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl on Wednesday. The accused said he sought revenge as her mother had reprimanded him. He wanted to have a sexual relationship with her mother, Raigad superintendent of police Anil Paraskar said.The accused had severed the girl's head with a kitchen knife and dumped her torso about 300 metres behind his house. He dumped her skull on the other side of the road after peeling off the skin of her face to ensure that she cannot be identified.A crime branch source said, "The mother, who is hearing impaired, had warned him against entering her house. She had threatened to tell her husband about it too. The accused and the victim's father were friends, and were both from Uttar Pradesh ."A police source said, "On Tuesday, around 8.30am, the girl had visited the man's house. Thereafter, he took her back to her mother, but the mother got annoyed and scolded him publicly. Hence, he decided to seek revenge. When the woman was busy inside her house, he gagged the girl, took her to his house, and bundled her away under the kitchen slab. He then went to sleep in the afternoon. The girl's mother and a neighbouring woman started searching for the girl and reached the accused's house, but he denied seeing her. The women did not enter as he was alone at home."Her parents lodged a missing complaint and the crime branch conducted a parallel probe. A police search team recovered the girl's torso from behind the suspect's house. He confessed to the crime during interrogation. He had inflicted burn injuries on the girl and attempted to sexually assault her. Fearing that she would reveal everything to her parents, he decided to get rid of her.The knife, with bloodstains, was recovered from his house. Initially, police had registered an FIR under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of IPC. Police later invoked IPC section 376 (punishment for rape) along with Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

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