A three-year-old girl died in Maharashtra's Thane district after he uncle allegedly slapped her "playfully". The 38-year-old man was taken into custody after he tried to burn the girl's body to get rid of the evidence.


The incident took place in Thane's Ulhasnagar area where the girl went missing on November 18. The girl's mother had filed a missing complaint to the police on Monday. Following this, the girl's partially burnt body was recovered on Thursday from the bushes near the Ulhasnagar Hill Line police station.


Acting on technical inputs and human intelligence, police arrested the child’s uncle. The arrested accused is the mother's brother. 


According to a report by India Today, the man was playing with his niece when he "playfully" slapped her. However, the slap's impact was so hard that the child fell and hit her head, passing away on the spot.


The man then hid her body immediately and even accompanied his sister to the police station to register the missing complaint for her daughter. The family even shared the child's pictures on social media, requesting people to provide any information that could help them find the missing girl. 


The accused, on Wednesday, took advantage of the Maharashtra Assembly polls, and tried to burn the girl's body with the help of his wife and a rickshaw puller friend.


The three of them also joined the police in searching for the body on Thursday. The rickshaw puller friend of the accused found the body, but the cops arrested the two men as they became suspicious.


During interrogation, the duo confessed to burning the body of the girl. They said their intention was not to kill the child. The uncle also confessed that he had hid the child's body as he had panicked and therefore tried to dispose it later.


Ulhasnagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Gore told India today: "We have taken action to arrest the accused on the basis of technical analysis and the confession given by the accused. We will present the accused before the court and demand police custody".


The case is being investigated further.