An Indian man has been arrested for allegedly raping and beheading a three-year-old girl after abducting her few weeks after he was released from prison.

The suspect, Rinku Sahu, 37 reportedly picked up the child while she was sleeping next to her mother at the Tatanagar railway station last Thursday.

He allegedly raped and beheaded her before dumping the body in the bush the next day.

The father of three was arrested on Tuesday, July 30, 2019,  along with his accomplice Kailash Kumar, after being identified in the CCTV footage.

He later led police to the place where he dumped the body of the child.

“We arrested Sahu on Tuesday night following a tip-off after we shared CCTV footage of the abduction with the media and on social media. He led us to the place where he had dumped the body,” the Government railway police deputy superintendent, Noor Mustafa Ansari.

“The girl’s private parts have also been damaged, indicating rape. We are awaiting her post-mortem report to conclusively confirm that,” Ansari said.

Tatanagar rail superintendent of police (SP) Dr Ehtesham Waquarib told HT that investigation so far found that Sahu was a psychopath having a history of stealing children.

“Rinku Sahu has done so with two more children under Telco and Sakchi PS previously for which he was convicted and served jail terms,” the SP said.

Sahu had first abducted a six-year-old boy, son of Kasidihbased Sahu, on September 13, 2008, police said. The boy has not been traced yet.

But Sahu admitted to Tatanagar rail police that he had abducted the boy and later released him.

The second child-lifting case against Sahu was lodged with Telco police station on April 18, 2015.

“Rinku Sahu confessed to abducting a seven-year-old son of Pramod Thakur from Jemco locality under Telco PS.

In this case, he was convicted by a local court in March 2018 and sentenced to 2-year jail term.

He had left the boy dumped assuming to be dead but police had recovered the boy, and he survived.

He was released from jail few weeks ago,” said Noor Mustafa Ansari, Tatanagar GRP deputy superintendent of police (DSP).