A 17-year-old girl was gang-raped, murdered and her body set on fire by three youths in South Dinajpur, in a rerun of the gruesome atrocities perpetrated on a young Hyderabad veterinarian.

On Monday morning, hours after the crime in Kumarganj, police found the girl’s charred body near a culvert in Pakurtala. By nightfall, the three youths had been arrested, including the person with who the victim was allegedly in a relationship.

“Three youths have been arrested in connection with the crime. They were produced in court on Tuesday and sent to 10 days’ police custody,” said Debarshi Dutta, the South Dinajpur police chief.

Mahbur Mian, a resident of Panchagram in Gangarampur who was allegedly in a relationship with the girl, is among those picked up, according to police sources.

On Sunday, the girl, who passed Madhyamik last year and discontinued her studies, had gone to Fulbari, a local marketplace in Kumarganj, to buy winter clothing.

When she did not return home at night, her family members started looking for her and also informed the police. When a charred body was found near a culvert in Kumarganj, the police rushed to the spot. The girl’s family confirmed her identity.

Other than Mahabur, Pankaj Burman and Gautam Burman, both residents of Tapan, have been arrested. The trio, all of whom had allegedly raped the girl, used to work as contractual labourers in Goa and had returned home a few months ago.

During the investigation, the police found that Mahabur had been in a relationship with the girl, but it had turned sour. “The trio have admitted that after an argument with the girl, they took her to a deserted place and raped her. Then they killed her and set the body on fire to prevent identification,” a police source said, adding that the girl could have been hacked to death as a lot of blood had been seen at the spot.