Ghaziabad: A man wanted for the rape and murder of his four-year-old niece was killed in a police encounter in Teela Mod on Sunday, barely a day after the reward on his arrest was doubled from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000.The gunfight, police said, broke out when a crime branch-SWAT team moved in to intercept the accused following specific information on his location. The encounter comes close on the heels of the Supreme Court pulling up Ghaziabad police over its handling of another rape-murder case. The apex court described the response of police and two private hospitals in the city as “indifferent, inhuman, and insensitive”.The man killed in the Teela Mod encounter was a Muzaffarnagar resident known by multiple aliases, police said. Since he was the child’s uncle, TOI is withholding his name.According to DCP Dhawal Jaiswal, the SWAT team received information on Sunday that the accused was moving through Teela Mod on a motorcycle with two associates. The informer was asked to keep watch on him, while inspector Anil Kumar Rajput and his team were deployed to surround and arrest him.The team set up checks near Bandhla Nahar cut after learning that the motorcycle was approaching them from the Nahar Patri-Chiraudi/Ratol village side. When cops signalled the bike to stop with torchlight, the riders allegedly opened fire “with intent to kill”. The speeding motorcycle skidded off the road as it tried to brake hard, but the men got up, took cover and continued firing with country-made pistols, police said.The police team returned fire in self-defence, taking cover behind vehicles and on the ground. The child’s uncle was hit in both legs and taken to hospital, where he died during treatment. Two others escaped in the dark.Jaiswal said two policemen — head constables Amit and Iqbal — were injured in the firing, while constable Mohit Sharma was saved by his bulletproof jacket. According to cops, 15 rounds were fired in all.The accused uncle had been on the run since the child’s body was found under a white parked car in Teela Mod earlier this month. Police said they received a Dial 112 call around 8pm that day, by which time the girl had been missing for more than eight hours.Her family told police she had been playing outside her home around noon, eating ice cream. Only the child and her blind grandfather were at home then. Her parents, both daily wagers, were away at work. The uncle allegedly lured her away by promising to buy her more food.Police said he had rented a room near the girl’s house about a month ago. He allegedly took the child there, raped and strangled her, and later dumped the body under a parked car. The autopsy confirmed rape and death by strangulation.An FIR was registered at Teela Mod police station under Section 103(1) of the BNS for murder, Section 65(2) for rape, Section 238 for causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to shield an offender, along with relevant provisions of the Pocso Act.Police said the accused had two earlier criminal cases registered against him. In 2025, he was arrested in Muzaffarnagar for allegedly stabbing and injuring his sister-in-law. After securing bail, he was arrested again in a molestation case.The child’s father said police had delivered justice. “After what he did to my daughter, he did not deserve to live,” he added.