Driver's seat
Driver from the southern part of China arrested for allegedly running over a 9-year-old girl and selling her organs - Representative image Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A driver from the southern part of China has been arrested after it was found that he had allegedly killed a nine-year-old girl after accidentally hitting her with his car. The accused also told police that he sold the girl's organs to make money.

The South China Morning Post reported that the 33-year-old driver, whose name has not been revealed, murdered the child to avoid paying compensation. Under Chinese law, someone disabling a person has to pay for their lifetime of care, whereas, the fine for killing someone is much smaller and one-off.

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The accused was arrested at his home in the village of Shaling in Central China's Hubei Province after the neighbours reportedly tipped off police. Police found the girl's body in a bush nearby, but were shocked to discover that many of her organs had been removed, the Mirror reported.

The girl's father said that his daughter, identified only by her surname Tao, had been reported missing from the village on 25 November. He told police that a witness told him he saw a man putting a young girl in his car and taking her away at noon. The witness had also described the car's colour and type to him, since licence plates of vehicles start with the province and city code in China.

While an investigation into the case is underway, the deceased girl's father has demanded death sentence for the accused.

According to local media reports, intentionally killing someone after accidentally injuring them in road accidents is common in China, in order to avoid paying lifetime care compensation.

In a similar incident, in November 2011 a 26-year-old university student was jailed for 15 years for running over an elderly man in the western province of Gansu. Zhang Qingda had told police that it was an accident but a court dismissed his claims and sentenced him for murder.

In another case, a two-year-old girl, nicknamed Yue Yue, died in Guangdong province in 2011 after she was run over by two separate vehicles. It was reported that none of the vehicles stopped to help her, and she was also ignored by at least 18 passers-by before a road sweeper saw her.