Guwahati, Apr 24 (IANS): The Assam police have arrested a man and his son for allegedly burning alive a minor domestic help in Nagaon district, police said on Saturday.

The victim, a 12-year-old tribal girl and an inhabitant of adjoining Karbi Anglong district, was allegedly burnt alive by her employers on Thursday. She was pregnant.

According to police in Guwahati, police from the Raha station in Nagaon district on Friday arrested 70-year-old Prakash Borthakur and his 25-year-old son Nayanmoni Borthakur in connection with the crime following complaints from the local residents. A police official said that the accused claimed that the girl committed suicide but initial investigation found that the girl was murdered. The body of the girl has been sent for autopsy.

The girl had been working as domestic help with Borthakur's family in Khaighar village for five years and was not allowed to go home in neighbouring Karbi Anglong district. The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) in a statement said that according to the neighbours, the victim was physically and mentally abused regularly by Barthakur's family and she was pregnant.

The ASCPCR directed the police and the district administration of Nagaon district to probe the case swiftly and prepare the charge-sheet by incorporating relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, besides the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.