Etah (UP), Jul 29 (IANS): Five persons were arrested by the Etah police on Tuesday for allegedly strangulating a three-year-old girl to death to take revenge from her father for 'insulting' them.

The victim was identified as Kinjal of Datauli village under Jiathra police circle.

Her father Hirdesh Gupta had lodged a complaint of kidnapping after his daughter went missing on Monday.

During investigations, it was found that Kinjal's father recently had a spat with his three cousins after he found his niece Vineeta with one Aman Thakur.

Taking this as an insult, the cousins decided to take revenge.

Superintendent of police, Etah, Sunil Kumar Singh said, "Vineeta took Kinjal to her home on the pretext of giving her some snacks from her family grocery store. However, as soon she brought the kid inside her house, she along with Aman Thakur, Karun, Budhpal and Kalicharan strangulated the girl and hid her body in the house. Two hours later, when Hirdesh came to Vineeta's home searching for his daughter, he was informed that Kinjal had already left for home. The family searched for Kinjal for several hours and they were joined by Vineeta and Aman to avoid suspicion."

Later, the police arrested Vineeta, Aman, Budhpal, Karun and Kalicharan and the body of the girl was also recovered.

According to the police, three of the accused, Budhpal, Karun and Kalicharan, were awarded life sentence in 2002 in a murder case of 1997. However, all three were out on bail.

The SP said, "All the five were arrested on Tuesday and the victim's body was recovered. The autopsy report has confirmed, that three-year-old girl was strangulated to death."