Police said the girl was killed due to ‘old enmity between the two families’.

An 11-year-old Dalit girl was murdered, her head “smashed with a brick”, at a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi district on Thursday afternoon when she had gone to a field to relieve herself, the police said.

The police ascribed an old enmity between the families of the victim and the accused as the murder motive.

According to an officer, the police are awaiting the autopsy report to ascertain whether she was sexually assaulted, and that the victim’s family did not allege rape in their complaint.

Police officers said two persons from the same village, also belonging to the Dalit community, were arrested and one minor boy was held in connection with the murder on Thursday evening.

Circle Officer (Gyanpur) Bhushan Verma told The Indian Express, “The body was found in a field in the village. The girl had left home around 12.30 pm, and after she failed to return for some time, family members started looking for her. The family later found her body and informed the police…around 3 pm.”

He added, “The girl’s head was smashed with a brick.”

Two parts of a brick, allegedly used in the murder, have been recovered, the police said.

Late Thursday evening, Verma said, “The accused and the victim belong to the Dalit community. There has been no confirmation of rape till now. We have lodged a case under IPC Section 302 (murder). The family has not alleged rape in their complaint.”

In a statement, the police said two persons were arrested, and a 16-year-old boy was detained in connection with the murder. The two arrested are the teen’s father and a relative (names withheld to protect boy’s identity). “All of them belong to one family,” Bhadohi SP Ram Badan Singh said.

The police’s statement said: “There was old enmity between the two families over which the accused had abused the victim’s family and threatened to ruin their lives. This is why the girl was murdered…the accused have confessed to killing the girl over old enmity.”

The police said the accused will be presented in court, and the minor in front of a Juvenile Justice Board, on Friday.

The SP told the media from the crime spot that details of the murder will emerge after the police get the postmortem report. Asked about allegations of rape, Singh said, “Once investigation and postmortem is done, it will become clear if such an incident happened with her…”

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