A case of kidnapping, rape and murder has been filed. (Representational)
A 3-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Maharashtra's Thane district, the police on Wednesday.
The child was playing outside her home in Bhiwandi on Tuesday afternoon when she went missing, prompting her parents to file a police complaint.
The Shanti Nagar police launched a search and found her body in a flat on the first floor of a dilapidated building in the area, said the official.
The body was first sent to a local government hospital and then to the state-run JJ hospital in Mumbai for a post-mortem, said the official.
"We have registered a case of kidnapping, rape and murder under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," said Inspector S A Indalkar of Shanti Nagar police station.
Nobody has been arrested yet, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)