MUMBAI: The police arrested a youth for killing his three-year-old niece at Thane in Maharashtra. The child went missing from her house at Ullas Nagar in Thane on November 18. A partially burnt body was found in the search conducted.

The 30-year-old confessed to the crime after the police questioned him following suspicion. He told police that he did not commit the murder deliberately. He slapped the girl while playing with her. She fell and hit her head on a kitchen slab leading to her death. He set her ablaze and dumped the body in a nearby bush to prevent truth from coming out. Police said the body has been shifted to the hospital for postmortem.