BHOPAL: A seven-year-old tribal girl, who had been missing since Monday afternoon in western Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district, was found brutally murdered, with her body locked inside the hollow trunk of a Banyan tree on Tuesday.
The primary police probe into the case suggests that the minor may have been raped and then brutally murdered with a large stone.
A man who worked as a labourer along with the girl’s father has been detained for questioning by the local police in Mandsaur’s Garoth police station area.
The girl had been missing since around 2 pm on Monday from her native Lukka village under the Garoth police station area of Mandsaur district.
Unable to find their daughter despite hours of searching, the tribal family reported the matter to the Garoth police station on Monday evening.
A few hours later, on Tuesday morning, the girl was found dead inside the hollow trunk of a Banyan tree near a well in the same village.
Circumstantial evidence suggested that the girl was first sexually assaulted and then murdered after being struck with a stone.
Subsequent investigations led the police to the prime suspect, who hailed from the same Garoth police station area and worked as a labourer with the girl’s father in Lukka village.
According to a senior police official, “While the labourer who worked with the deceased girl’s father has so far emerged as the prime suspect and is being questioned in police custody, the police are also probing the possibility of someone else’s involvement.”
Meanwhile, angered by the ghastly incident, villagers blocked the road and later protested outside the Garoth police station, demanding that the suspect be handed over to them. Angry villagers also forced the closure of shops in Garoth town over the chilling incident.