Mangaluru : Police have arrested four persons in connection with the case of murder of an eight year old girl near  a tiles factory at Parari near Ulaibettu last Sunday.

Speaking to reporters here, City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar said the accused had sexually assaulted the girl and had then strangled her to death.

Those arrested are Jay Singh (21), Mukesh Singh(20), Manish Thirki(33) and Muneem Singh(20). If Jay Singh, Mukesh and Manish worked in the Tiles Factory at Parari, Muneem worked as a labourer in Puttur. All the four are friends and three of them are from Panna district in Madhya Pradesh and one person from Ranchi in Jarkhand.

On November 21 afternoon, the four who noticed the girl playing outside the compound of the tile factory had taken her along forcibly and had  sexually assaulted and murdered her, the Commissioner said.

DCPs Hariram Shanker, Dinesh Kumar, ACP Ranjith Bhandaru and Ravish Nayak were present.