A SHOPKEEPER allegedly raped a girl before his wife helped beat her to death and hide the teen in a body bag.
The grocer, 45, is wanted by police after the 13-year-old was assaulted and strangled to death in Madhya Pradesh in central India.
Local reports suggest the shoper reportedly "lured" the girl to his home because attacking her.
Hina Dabar, a spokesman for Dhanwad police, told Times of India that the girl had gone ot buy buscuits on Monday morning.
Mr Dabar said the teen was then pressured to go into a house and then raped.
Then when she fought back, the grocer and his wife brutally beat and strangled her to death, he said.
Mr Dabar said the couple tried to stash her body in a bag, and drag it out onto a terrace.
The grocer was allegedly seen carrying the body by a neighbour, who then told the girl's family, according to local reports.
The family was said to have confronted the grocer, who reportedly denied seeing their daughter.
But they pushed their way into his home and found her sweater and slippers, Mr Dabar told local journalists.
As a search party combed throught the property to look ofr her, the couple are then said to have fled the scene.
The grocer was found hours later and arrested, but the search continues for the wife.
The girl's body has been taken for a post-mortem.
Rape and sexual violence has been under the spotlight in India since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi.
Outrage over her death led to legislators passing tough new laws against sexual violence, including the death penalty for rape in some cases.
One female reports a rape every 15 minutes in India and the state of Uttar Pradesh records rape almost every week, shocking statistics show.
Earier this month, a woman was allegeldy gang raped by a priest and his aides at an Indian temple before she bled to death.
Last November, a female patient in an Indian hospital was allegedly gang-raped by a doctor and staff before she was murdered.
In October, an Indian schoolgirl fell pregnant after allegedly being raped by her blackmailing three cousins over a period of five months.
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