A 19-year-old engineering student was found dead on Friday morning at her home in Booty Bustee, stripped bare, her face and torso charred, a wire gripping her neck and blood in her private parts suggesting rape and murder.

No one could have predicted such a grisly end for the BTech student of electrical and electronics engineering at RTC Institute of Technology, Ormanjhi, who was promoted to fifth semester on Thursday with good marks.

The girl and her older sister, a Ranchi Women's College student, stayed at Booty Bustee while their parents lived around 40km away in Barkakana, Ramgarh, as their father works in CMPDI there.

Last Saturday, both sisters had gone to Barkanana to visit parents. On Thursday, the father dropped off the girl to her engineering college in Ormanjhi at 11am as her semester results were to come out. Her unwell sister stayed back at Bakakana, which meant the girl had to spend the night alone.

That was the last time the father saw the youngest of his four daughters - the elder two are married - alive. Her call records suggest she phoned her father around 6.30pm, asking him to recharge her cellphone balance.

On Friday around 8.30am, when the older sister did not get any response on the girl's phone, she asked their Ranchi neighbour and former tenant's wife Rajkumari Devi to check in on her. Around 8.40am, Rajkumari, who found the latch of the main gate of the house locked from outside, opened it to see thick smoke. Then, she made the gruesome discovery.

Though autopsy would certify how the girl died, Sadar police station OC Bhola Prasad Singh, under whom Booty Bustee area falls, said it looked like the student had been sexually abused, strangulated and burnt. The upper part of her body was charred, the sheet of the bed she lay on and nearby books were burnt.

"Prima facie, it appears the girl was either raped or a rape attempt had been made, and then killed," said DSP Sadar Vikas Chandra Srivastava.

"It seems more than one person was involved, though there is no sign of forced entry. The crime was committed during morning as smoke was still coming out when the body was discovered. An FIR has been lodged against unknown persons on written application of her father," he added.

Police have questioned the sister, father and some friends to ascertain if the girl had complained of being teased, stalked or harassed, but made no breakthrough.

Dog squad and forensic experts were sent to recover evidence. Forensics lifted fingerprints, collected clothes, nails and other items from the site.

Later in the day, many college mates gathered outside her home demanding speedy arrests of culprits. "She was such a bright and humble student. We are shocked at her brutal murder. Those who ended her life must be hanged to death," said Shambhu Nath Prasad, her college principal.