The four-year-old girl whose body had been recovered from a pond in Sidhgora, Jamshedpur, on Friday morning, had been raped and murdered, the police revealed on Sunday in a gruesome twist to the case earlier thought to be a simple case of drowning.

The police have arrested two youths allegedly responsible for the gruesome crime, 20-year-old Sunny Gope who is accused of raping the child, and his mama, Niraj Gope (28), who then murdered her.

Both are residents of Sidhgora.

SSP Anoop T. Mathew on Sunday evening said the child's rape and murder was the fallout of enmity between Niraj and the victim's father, a trucker.

Niraj, who is married and a father of two children, was a tenant at the Fouja Bagan house of the child, in Sidhgora, for some years. But, on August 15, the trucker, enraged by the fact that Niraj had not paid up rent for the past two years, threw the Gope family out. Apparently, Niraj vowed revenge right then.

On August 16, about 11am, Niraj's nephew Sunny who stayed nearby in Sidhgora itself, picked up the child from her house. As the child knew Sunny, she did not scream.

Then, Sunny took her to a park at adjoining Baridih area in Sidhgora and offered her chocolates. "By evening, brought her to an empty quarters on road 8 in Sidhgora, where he raped the child around 9pm," said the SSP. "Within an hour of the rape, Niraj came to the empty quarters and strangulated the girl. Subsequently, Niraj and Sunny both waited till 1.30am when they carried the child's body from the empty house and tossed it to a pond about 100 metres away."

The unfenced pond, dug up earlier for Chhath Puja, was filled with moss, which hindered instant visibility of the body.

"Niraj had conspired the abduction and murder of the child. He engaged his nephew for the purpose," SSP Mathew said.

He added they started examining the case with a fresh eye after the forensic doctor at MGM Medical College said the child's post-mortem revealed she had been raped and strangulated.

"We immediately asked the victim's parents if they had enmity with anyone. The bereaved parents mentioned Niraj Gope. Then, the case unfolded quickly over the weekend. Both Niraj and Sunny have confessed," he said.

He added that the victim's parents delayed informing the police about the missing girl on August 16. "They waited the whole day and turned up at Sidhgora thana at midnight. Had they come earlier, maybe the girl would have survived," the SSP added.