Palghar: A four-year-old tribe girl hacked to death in Palghar Maharashtra district on Monday.
According to the police, the defendant was believed to be a relative of the victim.
The incident occurred at around 1:30 a.m.
near the Zilla Parishad School in Taluka Taluka.
The 46-year-old accused of running, an official from the District Rustic Police control room said, added an attempt to arrest him.
It is not yet known whether the child was sexually harassed and what the motive behind the murder, he said, added that the postmortem report was awaited.
The allegations were allegedly attacking the girl with sickles, making it seriously, the official said.
A pedestrian saw the child attacked and tried to save him, but the defendant also hit him with sickle and then escaped from the place, he said.
After being told, the police reached the place and rushed the girl to the nearest hospital where the doctor said he was taken dead, the official said.
The body is then sent for postmortem.
The man who had tried to save the girl was injured in an attack by the defendant and was hospitalized, the official said.
Police Dahanu registered a case against the defendant under the Indian criminal code (murder) and 307 (an attempt to kill), he said.
Efforts to track it, he added.
(With input from PTI)