Bathinda, Dec. 7 -- A 45-year-old Muktsar man who served 16 years in jail for raping and murdering a minor has been arrested in a fresh case of similar brutality, this time involving a nine-year-old girl, police said on Saturday. The child, who lived with her migrant parents near the grain market in Muktsar town, had gone missing on December 4 under suspicious circumstances. Police were alerted the next day and an operation to trace her was immediately launched, but in vain. On Saturday afternoon, nearly 48 hours after her disappearance, the child's body was recovered from near a rice mill, less than a kilometre from her residence. Cracking the case within hours, police arrested the accused, Mukesh Kumar, 45, following an encounter. Faridkot senior superintendent of police (SSP) Pragya Jain, who also holds the additional charge of Muktsar, said soon after the body was found, multiple teams were formed to zero in on the culprit. The teams narrowed down suspicious persons in the locality, and while questioning residents, one of them revealed that the child was last seen with Kumar. The accused was tracked down and nabbed after a brief exchange of fire. She said the accused suffered a gunshot injury in the leg in retaliatory police firing. "Autopsy confirmed that the child was subjected to sexual assault and strangled to death," the SSP added. She revealed that Kumar was sentenced to 16 years in jail for raping and murdering an underage girl in 2007. "He was released from jail three years ago. He has a long criminal history and is facing trial in one more murder case, registered at the Muktsar city police station, and another case of drug trafficking," she said. A case under Sections 103 (murder) and 137 (2) (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was registered against Kumar. "Investigators have been instructed to expedite the case file and push for a fast-track trial," added the SSP....