In a disturbing incident, a minor girl's body was recently found hanging from a tree. Her hands were tied up with a scarf. Police suspect that the girl was murdered after being allegedly raped.

The body of the 12-year-old was found in Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha district on Tuesday, reported India Today. According to Vinayak Verma, who is the Vidisha district Superintendent of Police, the girl was at her house in the morning. Then around 11am, she told her father that she was heading to the forest area with her mother. But her mother said that she wasn't aware of her daughter following her to the forest. Soon, villagers started searching for the girl.

Police said, "Several hours later, they found the body of the child hanging from a tree with her scarf. Her hands were also tied."

Cops later detained a youngster from the village. He is being interrogated in connection with the incident. "He was spotted suspiciously moving around the area and there are many inconsistencies in his statement," police said. Report of the post-mortem is awaited, following which cops will take an action.

Police sources said that there is a possibility of gangrape before she was murdered. An officer, who is investigating the case, suspects involvement of more than one person in the crime. The officer said that it is not feasible for one man to hang a body to a tree. Police will soon reveal the suspect's identity along with other accused, if there are any.

In a similar incident in Kokrajhar district, Assam in June, two teenage girls were found hanging from a tree. They were allegedly sexually assaulted before being killed. The bodies were hung from a tree to make it look like they died by suicide, said police.

According to Assam’s director general of police (DGP) Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta, three of the accused were involved in the rape and murder. While they were directly involved in the crime, four others had destroyed evidence and misled police during the investigation, reported Hindustan Times.

The incident got attention of many, including Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who expressed happiness on Twitter after the culprits were caught.

He also visited the victim's residence.

girl-447701_1920
Representational image Photo by Greyerbaby / Pixabay