Uttar Pradesh, May 25: A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 25-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district on Thursday. The minor girl, who was accompanying her mother to a river, went missing for a while, after which she was found in nearby bushes, covered in blood. The victim was immediately rushed to a hospital for medical examination, reports of which suggested that she was raped.

As per the police, the accused has been arrested. "We have registered the case and have arrested the accused. Further investigation is underway," said circle officer S.K. Singh. Unnao had recently hit the headlines, when its MLA, Kuldeep Sengar, was arrested last month by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the charges of raping a minor.

In the recent past, there has been a surge in sexual crimes against minor girls.

In January, an eight-year-old girl, who belonged to a nomadic Muslim tribe in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, was allegedly abducted, drugged, gang-raped, tortured and killed. In Indore, an infant below the age of one was allegedly raped and killed.

Taking cognisance of such crimes, President Ram Nath Kovind, on April 22, promulgated the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, for effective deterrence against the commission of rape. The ordinance seeks the death penalty for the rapists of girls below 12 years of age and stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape particularly of girls below 16 years, thereby strengthening the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.