Maharashtra: Tribal girl found dead at farm in Palghar district; police suspect murder

Palghar: A 16-year-old tribal girl was found dead at a farm in Maharashtra's Palghar district, with police suspecting it to be a case of murder.

The girl left her house in Jawhar taluka here around 11 am on Tuesday to take care of their cashew and mango farm located nearby, but did not return home, an official at the district police headquarters on Thursday said quoting the complaint filed by the victim's father.

On Wednesday evening, some passersby spotted her body in a drain at another agriculture field in the area and alerted police, he said. The police rushed to the spot and sent the body for postmortem, he said.

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The official said they suspect the girl was hit with a hard object and the culprit then dumped the body in the drain to destroy evidence of the crime. The police have registered a case against an unidentified person under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 341 (wrongful restraint), he said.

Efforts were on to nab the culprit and to ascertain the motive behind the killing, he added.