The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested a constable on Thursday for allegedly raping a seven-year-old girl in Greater Noida, the Hindustan Times reported. Subhash Singh, a constable working with the sales tax department in Gautam Budh Nagar, was thrashed by a mob before the police took him into custody.

Singh, 45, abducted the child while she was playing near her house in Surajpur locality on Wednesday, an unidentified neighbour alleged. Singh then took the child to his room and raped her, said the neighbour.

When the child screamed for help, the neighbours rushed to Singh’s place but he had fled. “Later, a mob of over a hundred people attacked Singh and roughed him up,” said the neighbour. “He was in his uniform and we kept beating him for two hours. Later, the police was informed and they reached the spot by 8 am and arrested him.”

The police have filed a First Information Report against Singh under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act. “The child has been sent to the district hospital at Sector 30 in Noida for a medical test,” Surajpur Station House Officer Akhilesh Pradhan said. “Reports are awaited”.