Indore, Apr 21 (Deccan Chronicle): A six-month-old girl, sleeping next to her parents outside the Rajwada Fort in Indore, was taken away and raped in an isolated basement some 50 metres away in the early hours of Friday.

The accused, 21-year-old Sunil Bheel who was spotted on a CCTV camera carrying the baby on his shoulder, also killed her once he was done. The blood-soaked body of the infant was recovered on Friday afternoon from the basement of the commercial building when a shopkeeper had gone there to open his shop.

The child's parents, balloon sellers, were sleeping on the street outside the Rajwada Fort in the city. The accused Sunil Bheel was known to the parents of the infant and was sleeping close to them, police said.

"The body of the infant was recovered from the basement of a commercial building in Rajwada area. The accused, Sunil Bheel, had kidnapped her early today morning when she was asleep with her parents outside the Rajwada Fort. The accused was sleeping close to the family," news agency PTI quoted HC Mishra, Deputy inspector-general of police, Indore saying.

The child's body had injury marks on the private parts and the head.

The police, while looking for clues, scanned the CCTV cameras in the area, which led them to the accused.

"The accused is seen carrying the infant in CCTV images of around 4:45 am today (Friday). He then took her to the basement of the building, some 50 metres away from where the family was sleeping, and her body was recovered in the afternoon," Mishra said.

"The infant had an injury on her head. The accused probably threw her to the ground. We are going to arrest him shortly," he added.

The rape and murder follows a disturbing pattern emerging across the country even as it tries to come to terms over the kidnapping, gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir in January.

In Uttar Pradesh's Etah, a nine-year-old attending a wedding with her family was allegedly raped before being strangled on Thursday night.

On Wednesday, a 10-year-old girl was similarly raped and murdered at a wedding in Chhattisgarh.

In Surat, an 11-year-old was raped and murdered and then her body was dumped earlier this month. She had 86 injuries and was also brutalised with blunt objects.

Also Read: 9-yr-old Surat girl raped, body found with 86 injuries in cricket ground

The rapes have provoked mass protests across India and social media campaigns for justice and safety.