The mysterious death of a teenaged girl in Hyderabad, whose body was found two days after she went missing, has raised suspicion.
The school student, identified as 17-year-old Maya*, was reported missing from her Miyapur home on Saturday night and her body was found abandoned behind rocks, near a construction site in Ameenpur on Monday evening.
"She left home at around 5pm and said that she was going to meet some friends. When her phone was unreachable at 6:30pm, we tried to contact her friends, and later went to the police station to lodge a complaint," a family member told media persons.
"She had no disputes. We suspect that it was a planned killing," the family member added.
Since the parents first approached Miyapur police, they said that a case of kidnapping was registered, as she was a minor.
"After that, we began investigation and began tracing her phone call records and speaking to her friends. Meanwhile, we received a tip off that a similar looking body was found here (Ameenpur). We immediately called the parents and they recognised the body as that of their daughter," a police officer from the Miyapur police said.
"There are no external injuries on the body. A case of suspicious death has been registered with the Ameenpur police. We will get further clarity after the post-mortem. As of now, we do not have any CCTV footage, but we will investigate what happened," he added.
Sangareddy Superintendent of Police, S Chandrashekar Reddy, also visited the spot and said that they have registered it as a murder case.
"After we received information that a body was found here, an Inspector visited the spot and found that it was highly decomposed. We have registered it as a murder case, and have sent the body to Gandhi Hospital for post-mortem," he told TV9.
"Since the case comes under the jurisdiction of two police stations, and also two Commissionerates (Cyberabad and Sanga Reddy), we will ensure coordination to deal with it swiftly," he added.
Forensic evidence was also collected from the spot where the body was found.
Police said that the last phone call was made at 3.30pm, before she left at 5pm.
Speaking to India Today, a top officer of the Cyberabad police said, "The girl could not have travelled all by herself to the place and someone must have taken her there, either with her consent or forcibly."
The Indian Express reported that there could be a link with the Blue Whale challenge, as her parents had informed the police that she was moody and had become withdrawn recently, and spent hours on her phone.
However, the police dismissed the claim.
*Name changed.