The main accused — Brijesh Kumar Tripathi and the constables — were posted at the Mohammadabad police station of Fatehgarh.

Dayanand Singh, Station House Officer, Mohammadaba, said: “The SSI and the constables had left the police station at 8 pm on Monday to be stationed at Farrukhabad, where a major clash had taken place earlier that day. We do not know how they managed to reach Bareilly and indulge in such a crime.”

The Additional SP (City) Bareilly, Prabal Pratap Singh, said the girl stayed with her stepfather YN Tiwari in Izzatnagar since her mother Sandhya died on December 6. Sandhya had got a job in the Railways on compassionate grounds after her first husband died. Later, she had married Tiwari.

After Sandhya’s death, a dispute had erupted between SSI Tripathi and Tiwari, the SSP said.

While Tripathi wanted his niece to get the Railways job in her mother’s stead, Tiwari was claiming it for his son. Besides, Tripathi also had an objection to Tiwari claiming the property of Sandhya’s first husband.

The Izzatnagar police swung into action after receiving information from Tiwari that Tripathi had kidnapped his daughter while she was on way to her school on a rickshaw in the morning.

The police traced the jeep (UP 76 H-6513) at Fatehganj and rescued the girl from the clutches of Brijesh and the constables, who were in uniform. The driver too was arrested, the ASP said. The girl told the police that the cops had forcibly dragged her into the jeep.