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Bhopal: The body of an eight-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped, was found near a drain in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, a police official said. Preliminary investigation revealed that she died of strangulation after being raped, he said. The girl had ventured out of her house in Kamla Nagar area of the state capital around 8 pm on Saturday to buy something. When she did not return, her family members approached the police, the official said. Her body was found near a drain in the same area on Sunday morning, he said.

According to an initial post mortem report, the girl "died of strangulation after rape," Additional Superintendent of Police Akhil Patel told PTI. "We are waiting for a detailed report. We have identified an accused and a police team has launched a search for him," he added. Inspector General (Bhopal zone) Yogesh Deshmukh told reporters that the Kamla Nagar police station had received a complaint on Saturday night about the girl going missing. "The police searched for her in the night. Her body was found around 5 am today," he said. He said a constable was suspended after the girl's family members alleged that the police did not act on their complaint after she went missing.

The girl's uncle said, "She went out to purchase gutkha but never returned. We went to the police station but they did not respond and even said that she must have gone away with someone." Later, the family members searched for the girl at the railway station and in other areas of the city. They also contacted a local corporator who alerted the police, he said. "The police personnel reached our locality late in the night but they kept sitting there instead of looking for her," he claimed.

In another incident, a 4-year-old girl was allegedly raped at a school in Punjab's Sangrur district. The alleged incident took place in Dhuri town when the girl accompanied her mother to school for a parent-teacher meeting. According to reports, the girl was playing in the park when school helper cum conductor lured the girl and taken to a room, where she was brutally raped. The victim's mother was attending the meeting when the crime occurred.

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