Bhubaneswar, Apr 23 (DC): A six-year-old girl in Odisha who had gone to purchase biscuits was raped, strangulated and left inside a school campus at Jagannathpur village in Cuttack district of Odisha presuming her to be dead on Saturday evening.

The girl suffered multiple injuries on her head, face, neck and chest and is admitted in a hospital. Her condition is said to be “very critical”. A 25-year-old man of the same village was arrested on Sunday.

According to police, the girl had gone to buy biscuits on Saturday. However, when she did not return home after some time and there was a power cut, her worried family members set out to look for her along with a group of villagers.

"After a frantic search for over an hour the girl was traced lying unconscious and without clothes in the school campus with blood oozing from her head and mouth," the police said.

The alleged rapist had left her in that state presuming she was dead, police added.

The six-year-old was immediately taken to a private nursing home nearby and later moved to Cuttack's SCB Medical College and Hospital.

The alleged rapist lives in the girl's village of Jagannathpur and has been charged for rape and attempt to murder. "A case... was registered on the basis of a written complaint filed by the girl"s grandfather," police inspector DK Mallick said.

Odisha health minister Pratap Jena, who visited the girl in the hospital, said a team of at least 13 doctors from several departments are treating her.

Two other rapes were reported in Odisha over the weekend when the centre cleared an emergency executive order to introduce death penalty for those found raping minors.

A four-year-old girl was raped allegedly by a minor, her neighbor, in a village in Odisha's Kendrapara district. Police said she was raped near the Paika riverbed last Friday allegedly by a school boy. Sexual assault was confirmed after medical examination of both the girl and the boy.

In another case, a 30-year-old man was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a Class 6 student was two days in Odisha's Kalahandi district. According to the complaint, the student had gone to her uncle's house on April 17 to attend a family function.

While returning, she was abducted by a man named Munna Naik and taken to his house, where he kept the girl for two days and allegedly raped her. The man later abandoned the girl on the roadside on Thursday evening.

The girl narrated the ordeal to her family members after which a complaint was filed.