The victim, the Class 12 student, had left home on Monday to visit a neighbouring town to fill up a scholarship form.

Clarion India

LAKHIMPUR KHERI, UP — After barely 10 days of a brutal rape-murder case that rocked Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, a similar case of rape and murder was reported from the district on Tuesday.

A 17-year-old girl, whose mutilated body was found near a village in Lakhimpur Kheri district was also raped, police has confirmed. She had left home to fill out a scholarship application in a neighbouring town, police officials said.

The confirmation came late on Tuesday after the body was recovered the same morning.

The police had initially said the girl appeared to have been killed with a sharp weapon and that she had sustained injuries to her neck. A part of her leg reportedly appeared to have been devoured by some stray animal.

The body was found near a dried-up pond, around 200 metres from her village.

SP Satendar Kumar said: “The post-mortem report has confirmed rape. We are making all possible efforts to identify and arrest the accused. We hope to make a breakthrough soon.”

The victim, the Class 12 student, had left home on Monday to visit a neighbouring town to fill up a scholarship form. However, when she did not return the family informed the police.

“I really do not know what to say or whom to suspect. She left around 8.30 a.m. on Monday. We do not suspect anyone,” her uncle told reporters.

On August 15, a 13-year-old girl was raped and killed in district’s Isanagar area. Her body was found in a sugarcane field that belongs to one of the accused. Two men from her village have been arrested.

Her father alleged his daughter had been strangled, and had her eyes gouged out and her tongue cut off.

However, he police said the autopsy did mention rape and strangulation only and did not show her eyes had been gouged or that her tongue was cut out.

— With inputs from IANS