The accused was caught while disposing of the girl's body by some passersby.
A teenager raped his neighbour's three-year-old daughter in west Delhi on Thursday and crushed her face with a big stone so that no one could identify her, police said late on Friday. He was arrested when some passerby spotted him nervously trying to bury the kid in a pit.
Police said the accused was a 16-year-old and was produced before a juvenile justice board that would decide if he could be tried as an adult. He has been sent to a children's correction home.
The girl was playing near her home when the accused took her to a secluded place nearby and assaulted her sexually. Her parents are daily labourers and had gone for work to a nearby construction site yesterday when the accused caught hold of her, said a senior police officer.
On coming back, the girl's parents searched for her in every nook and corner of the neighbourhood, but she was nowhere to be found.
They came to know about the incident only an hour later, when the accused got caught red-handed by some passersby while disposing of the body, the officer added.
"The accused, who worked as a water-proofing worker has been apprehended. A case has been registered and the accused has been sent to children correction centre," the officer said.
The minor was strangled when she cried of pain, the police officer said. "The accused even defaced her face with some hard substance, possibly a stone, to conceal her identity," the officer added. The girl's body was sent for an autopsy and doctors have confirmed the sexual assault.