SRINAGAR – Indian police have arrested a woman and four others after hernine-year-old stepdaughter was allegedly gang-raped, murdered andmutilated, in the latest horrific crime to shock the country.

The child’s decomposed body was found on Tuesday hidden behind bushes abouta kilometre from her home in the Baramulla district of Indian-administeredKashmir, police said.

Her father had reported her missing 12 days earlier.

Police said the woman, aged 36, was jealous of her stepdaughter and of herhusband’s second wife, and on August 24 took the girl to a forested area.

There she allegedly directed her own 14-year-old son and his two teenagefriends, aged 14 and 19, to take turns in raping the child.

The stepmother is accused of then strangling the girl while her son hit thechild on the head with an axe.

His friend brought vehicle battery acid from home and sprinkled it on thebody while another friend gouged out her eyes before dumping the corpse inthe bushes.

A 28-year-old man has also been arrested over the case.

“Physical condition and preliminary forensic analysis of dead bodysubstantiated all these facts,” said a police statement issued on Tuesday.

Local police Superintendent Imtiyaz Hussain told AFP the teenage offendershave confessed to the crime and separately corroborated the facts duringquestioning.

“They will be sent to a juvenile home and dealt with according to thestate’s juvenile law,” Hussain said. – APP/AFP