A school principal in Gujarat's Dahod who had offered a lift to a six-year-old student on way to school on her mother's request has been arrested on the charge of sexually assaulting the little one in his car and then smothering her to death when she tried to scream.

The principal of the government-run Torni primary school, Govind Nat, had allegedly kept the body of the Class I girl in the car through the day and later dumped it in the school compound in Singvad taluka. The incident took place on Thursday but came into national limelight on Sunday with the arrest of the principal.

Nat, 50, was suspended from government service on Monday. Police said he had confessed to the crime.

Superintendent of police Rajdeepsinh Zala said: "Around 10.20am on Thursday, the principal, who was passing by in his car, agreed to take the child to school in his car at her mother's request. Students and teachers told the police that the girl did not attend school that day.”

On the way to school, the principal tried to sexually assault the girl, Zala said. When she resisted, he covered her mouth and nose to stop her from screaming, making her unconscious and leading to her death, the police chief added.

According to police sources, one of the factors that nailed Nat was the delay in reaching the school. The girl lived at a distance of three minutes from the school, but there was a time gap of seven minutes between the time the principal picked her up and the time his car entered the school premises.

When questioned, the principal initially insisted that he had dropped the girl at the school, Zala said. After giving evasive and contradictory answers during the interrogation, Nat finally confessed to having killed the girl, the police said. Also, schoolchildren whom the police spoke to posing as social workers and offering them chocolates told the cops that they had not seen the girl in school on Thursday.

The police said, relying on the Google location data retrieved from Nat's phone, that he was in school till 6.10pm on Thursday, well past 5pm when classes got over. It was during this time that Nat took the girl's body out of the car and dumped her in one corner of the school compound. "He then planted her schoolbag and slippers in her classroom,” Zala said.

The post-mortem report revealed that the girl had been smothered to death.

Nat has been booked for murder, attempt to rape and under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.