Bhubaneswar, Aug. 20: Police recovered the body of an eight-year-old girl from a field behind a slum at Nayapalli here this evening.

The cops suspect that the girl might have been raped and killed.

A police officer said the incident took place this afternoon when a youth asked the parents of the victim directions to an address in the slum.

The girl’s parents sent her with the youth to show him the exact location of the house he was searching for. “My wife sent her with the youth to show him the address he was searching for. But, my daughter did not return home,” said the victim’s father.

Later, local residents traced the body from a nearby field in the evening.

The police officer said the circumstantial evidences showed that the girl was raped and later strangled to death.

Later, the police arrested a youth, identified as Ashok Sahu, 25, alias Kiran, in this connection.

Police commissioner R.P. Sharma rushed to the spot, along with other senior police officers.

“The footage of a closed-circuit television camera installed in front of a house in the slum showed that the girl had gone with Kiran. Kiran might have raped and killed her,” said a police official.

He also said the parents of the victim allowed the minor to go with the accused as Kiran was previously known to her family.

The girl’s body was later taken to Capital Hospital amid tight security.

In another development, city police have identified all the accused involved in the murder of a 22-year-old MPharm student at Chintamaniswar yesterday and detained three of them.

The victim, Manmohan Pradhan, who hailed from Delang in Puri, was attacked with a sharp weapon by at least seven employees of a real estate firm.

A police officer said efforts were on to arrest all the accused persons in the case.