Puri police said the face of the woman was absolutely blackened. (Representational)
A body of an 18-year-old woman dressed in only her underclothes was found in the beach near the Penthakata area in Odisha's Puri, on November 26, three days after she went missing, the police said.
The police, however, suspect the death of the woman, who hails from a village in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, was due to drowning in the sea.
The woman's family has alleged she was kidnapped from a hotel and was later raped and killed.
The family members met Puri superintendent of polic K V Singh during the day and demanded the high-level investigation.
Puri police said the face of the woman was absolutely blackened, probably by chemicals like acid and her fingers were mutilated. "It could, however, also be due to the long exposure to saline water of the sea as the body had floated face down. Her fingers may have been eaten away by any marine creature".
The father, however, claimed that acid was poured on her face by her killer to hide her identity. Acid was also poured on her back.
It was her father who had identified her from her earrings, gold nose pin, red band in her hand and a bllack one on her ankle.
Disturbing images shared with PTI showed that the body was bloated with at least one finger missing. It also had a number of cut marks on it.
"We have registered an unnatural death case. However, keeping in view the family members suspicions I have asked an officer of the level of deputy superintendent of police to probe into the incident," the SP told PTI over phone.
The family members said the woman had gone missing on November 23 after she left the hotel room to collect their clothes that were drying outside. They alleged that the woman was kidnapped from the hotel and killed by pouring acid on her face so that she could not be recognized.
The family had lodged a missing case at the sea beach police station on November 23 and left the town, the police said. The body was found three days later.
The family members also said that they were informed of the body being found on the beach after the post mortem.
"The incident is no less horrific than the brutal the killing in Delhi where body of a young woman (Shradha) was chopped into pieces by her live-in partner (Aftab)," a tourist from West Bengal said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)