Uttar Pradesh Police constable thrashed by locals, arrested for raping 7-year-old girl in Greater Noida

A 45-year-old constable in the Uttar Pradesh Police was arrested on Thursday for allegedly abducting and raping a seven-year-old girl from his locality in Greater Noida.Subhash Singh, a constable working with the sales tax department in Gautam Budh Nagar, was beaten by locals before being handed to the police, Hindustan Times reported.[caption id="attachment_4269777" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. AFP[/caption]Police sources quoted by the report said that the incident occurred at around 3 pm on Wednesday in Greater Noida's Surajpur locality, where the accused and the victim lived in adjacent buildings. The victim's mother, a single parent, works as a labourer in a factory."He took the child forcibly to his apartment. People heard her screaming and rushed to Singh's house. They rescued the girl, but he managed to run away," a neighbour quoted by the report said."When he returned at around 4 am, two women spotted him and raised an alarm," the neighbour added.According to The Times of India, the accused assaulted the girl for half an hour and fled from the spot as people started gathering due to her cries for help.The victims' family members and the locals were disturbed over the brutal assault and lost their cool. They then roughed up the constable with shoes and sandals before handing him over to the police, the report adds.Akhilesh Pradhan, SHO Surajpur police station, was quoted by the report as saying that the police have registered a case of rape and POCSO Act against the accused. "He was produced in court and sent to judicial custody," Pradhan said.The child has been sent to the district hospital at Sector 30, Noida for medical test and reports are awaited, the report added.