A seven-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and murdered in a village in Moradabad, police said.
The girl, belonging to a minority community, had gone missing while she was playing outside her house on December 22.
Her body was found later in a sugarcane field, nearly two kilometres away from her house on Friday night.
An autopsy, conducted on Saturday, confirmed that she was sexually assaulted and murdered.
Police have registered an FIR under IPC sections of rape, murder, and the POCSO Act.
The girl was the youngest of three siblings, and her father is a vegetable seller.
After she went missing, her family lodged a missing complaint. Two police teams were deployed to trace her but they could not find her.
On Friday, when a farmer went to his field, a foul smell was emanating from the area. He became curious and started looking for its source, and found the body.
The girl’s mother said, “I searched everywhere for my daughter but could not find her. I want justice for my daughter.”