Updated

Bengaluru, Feb 6 (Agencies): A mutilated body of an eight-year-old girl was found with injury marks in a car shed near Hoskote near here, police said Friday.

"Preliminary investigation of bite marks and injuries on private parts of the body shows the victim was molested and raped before being smothered to death by an unidentified youth," Bengaluru Superintendent of Police (Rural) B. Ramesh told IANS here.

A police hunt is on for a man who is believed to have raped and killed the eight-year-old girl. The child's body was discovered in a car shed on Thursday evening by other children playing in the area, which is surrounded by houses.

Footage of the girl and the man entering the shed was captured on a CCTV camera at a gas connection office nearby.

The man captured on camera played with the child before leading her into the shed. He is seen on footage emerging from the shed later without the child and walking away.

B Ramesh, a senior policeman told NDTV that the child was smothered to death. He said the man spoke Kannada but was not a local. The police have been questioning people from the area who spoke to the man seen in the CCTV footage.

The child's parents had come from Hubbali in north Karnataka looking for work.

The victim's father Mahantesh had filed a complaint at the Sulebele police station in the city's eastern suburbs that his daughter was missing from home.

"After searching for two-three hours, our team found the victim in the car shed opposite an oil marketing firm office in Hoskote. We are analysing the CCTV footage to identify the culprit. The footage is blurred as the area around the shed and the passage to it was in shadows," SP Ramesh said. 

According to eye witnesses, the youth, aged around 25 years, was drunk and not from the local area. Passersby had seen the alleged culprit taking the victim into the car shed and downing the shutters.

Ramesh said eight search teams had been set up to trace the culprit and a case of rape and murder filed against the suspect under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and sections 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

There is shock and fear in the area. A resident told NDTV, "A rakshasa (demon) has done this crime. What will people who come here to make a living think of us?"

"How can we let our children out to play for even a few minutes?" asked a woman who lives just a few feet away from where the child was killed.