Bhubaneswar: The police have arrested a man in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a minor girl in Odisha’s Angul district yesterday. 

A special team of the Angul police arrested accused Ashish Nayak of Bijigol village while he was planning to leave Odisha in an attempt to evade the law.

According to police, Nayak had alleged sexually assaulted the minor girl, who was also from the same village, while she was collecting spinach from a farmland yesterday.

The accused, later, killed the victim by strangulating her through the help of a cotton towel. After committing the crime, Nayak had switched off his mobile phone and fled the village, police said.

The Angul police formed a special team and launched a manhunt to nab the accused soon after the recovery of the victim’s body today morning.

“Our team nabbed the accused within 24 hours of the crime. He has confessed to the crime during interrogation,” said Angul Superintendent of Police (SP) Rahul Jain.

According to him, a Deputy Superintend of Police (DSP)-rank officer has been asked to investigate the case and prepare the chargesheet. “We will take the appropriate step to ensure stricter punishment to the accused,” added the SP.