Amake Rabikaku merechhe? haat bendhe rekhechhe? kichhu khete dey ni? jal-o na (Rabi uncle beat me up? tied my hands? didn?t give me food... not even water).

The words uttered by nine-year-old Subhra Chakraborty to her parents on Thursday night helped police lift the veil of mystery shrouding her disappearance and then her return in a bruised state.

A team raided the house where Rabindranath Dey worked as a domestic help, next to Subhra?s, on Friday morning and arrested him.

?When we showed her Dey?s photograph on Friday afternoon, she identified him at once,? said Damayanti Sen, deputy commissioner (north).

Dey, 22, who hailed from East Midnapore, reportedly confessed to the crime during interrogation.

?We took him to the spot where he re-constructed the entire episode,? said Sen. Police, however, are yet to ascertain Dey?s motive behind kidnapping and torturing the girl. ?He seems to be mentally disturbed. He looked relaxed during interrogation,? said an officer of Burtolla police station.

Subhra, daughter of a jewellery shop-owner, went missing on Sunday afternoon and was found in the garden of a neighbouring house, injured and almost unconscious, three days later.

A medical team to monitor Subhra?s condition was formed on Friday. ?She will be kept under observation for at least a week as she is still under shock,? said Santanu Tripathi, superintendent of SSKM Hospital.

According to deputy commissioner Sen, when Subhra had stepped out of her Umesh Dutta Lane home to buy chocolates from a shop nearby, Dey was standing in front of his house.

Seeing Subhra, he requested her to help him lock the door. As Subhra came close, Dey pulled her inside. ?The girl was then taken to a room on the ground floor of the two-storeyed building. He tied her hands with a rope and kept her confined for three days.?

But why did no one in the para come to know of the abduction? ?Only an aged woman lives in the house. She is on the first floor, and leaves home early and returns late. Besides, Subhra could not shout as she had been gagged,? said an officer.

Dey thrashed Subhra whenever she would moan in pain. ?He did not offer her even a biscuit or a drop of water,? the officer added.

Around midnight on Tuesday, Subhra fell unconscious. ?Dey thought she was dead. He snatched her ear-rings and then dumped her in the garden nearby,? said Sen.