Kalyani, July 3 :    Kalyani, July 3:  The body of a 12-year-old girl, with her throat slit and clothes removed, was found outside an abandoned factory at Chandmari in Kalyani this morning. The school dress she was wearing when she went missing yesterday was recovered a few hundred metres away from the body. Aloka Das, a Class V student of Nagendra Bala Balika Vidyalaya, went out to meet a friend after coming back from school in the afternoon. When she did not return home till late in the evening, her father, Madan Das, went to the police and lodged a missing diary. But the girl could not be found even after a search of the neighbourhood. Madan Das, an employee at a Khadi emporium in Kalyani, told police that Aloka 'left her school bag in the house around 4 pm, and told me that she would be back after visiting her friend. That was the last time I saw her'. Some residents of the area told policemen that they had seen Aloka with a local youth, Surajit Basu. Later in the day, Surajit was arrested from his house by Kalyani police on charges of attempted rape and murder. 'He was overpowered despite his attempts to flee,' said an officer. He had lured the girl to the abandoned factory near a jungle and tried to rape her. 'The girl resisted the youth's attempts. Enraged, Surajit slit her throat with a knife,' said superintendent of police (Nadia) Ramphal Pawar. The police team recovered the weapon used to kill Aloka from bushes near the spot where the body was found. A resident who had gone to the abandoned iron nail factory to collect wood this morning saw the body lying in a pool of blood and informed the police. As news of the murder spread across Chandmari, residents rushed to the police station demanding immediate arrest of the culprit. 'Aloka was very friendly, but never spoke to strangers. Surajit was meeting her of late, but we never realised that he had such evil designs,' a local youth said. The police later found out Surajit had a criminal record and was wanted in connection with some old cases.