A five-year-old girl was found dead with her head smashed on an agriculture farm in Maharashtra's Nagpur district on Sunday, police said.
The victim was missing since December 6.
"The body of the girl with a serious head injury was found in the agriculture farm on Sunday afternoon where she lived with her parents," police said, adding that it appeared someone smashed her head with a stone.
He said they are awaiting the post-mortem report to ascertain the exact cause of the death and to know whether the girl was sexually assaulted.
The girl's parents had initially thought she went to her grandmother's house, which is near their home. They lodged a missing person's complaint after they could not find her, police said. Her parents work as farm labourers.
A case of murder has been registered under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Girls From These Categories To Get Free Higher Education In Maharashtra 15-Year-Old Girl Dies In Maharashtra Hostel, Family Demands 2nd Autopsy For 300 Crore Property, She Allegedly Got Father-In-Law Killed, Paid 1 Crore Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Joe Biden Is The Best Person To Take On Trump, Says His Campaign Wife Among Two Jailed For Life For Man's Murder In Gurugram: Cops 1,100 Flights Cancelled In US As Microsoft Outage Disrupts Operations Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.