A guard of the building where a nine-year-old girl was found with her throat slit on Thursday morning has been arrested on charges of rape and murder.

Police said Ram Kumar, in his 40s, had admitted to the crime. The accused, who worked as a guard of the building where the body was found for over 10 years, was detained on Thursday and arrested on Friday afternoon.

Investigators said the preliminary post-mortem report suggested that the girl’s throat was cut by a sharp weapon, causing her death.

Sources said the girl was lured with chips laced with sedatives before she was allegedly raped and then killed.

Kumar has been charged under IPC sections related to rape of a victim under 12 years (if convicted, he can be sentenced to death) and murder, and also for aggravated sexual assault on a minor under the Pocso Act.

The guard, who said he had a family in Jharkhand, was one of the first to raise the alarm that the child’s body was found in the building.

Cops detained him based on the suspicion that someone who knew that the first floor of the building was vacant must have committed the offence.

Investigators also learned from witnesses that the victim was last seen with the guard before she went missing.

The victim had gone to visit her maternal uncle’s home with her parents and two elder sisters on Thursday, hours before she went missing.