Ranchi: The decomposed body of a 15-year-old Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya student, who was missing since May 12, was found in a Namkum forest some 2km from her Rampur school and 20km from the state capital.

Local residents suspect she was raped and then killed, but police have refused to draw conclusions before a thorough investigation.

The Class IX girl left her Jaria village home, 1.5km from school, the Saturday before last to attend Manda Puja nearby. She never came home. The grapevine has it that she had an affair with a local lad and may have accompanied him to the festival.

The teenager's body was found hanging from a tree at Vyangdih forest under Namkum thana around 2pm on Thursday. Police received information more than two hours later.

"It is suspected that the girl was raped and murdered. Police have taken the body into custody and will send it to RIMS in Bariatu for post-mortem," a local resident said.

An FIR had not been registered till the filing of this report at 8pm.

Rural SP Ajit Peter Dungdung confirmed recovery of a girl's body, but refused to confirm rape. "The knee (of the deceased) was bent, which indicates that someone hanged her to a tree after killing her. In case of suicide, the knee does not bend. Rape, on the other hand, can ascertained only after post-mortem examination," he said, adding that the autopsy was likely on Friday once the body reached RIMS.

Drowning

Jamshedpur: The body of one Aakash Kumar (22) was recovered from Sitarampur Dam in Adityapur on Thursday. Police suspect Kumar, a resident of Kadma here, had gone to take a bath on Wednesday afternoon when he accidentally drowned.

RI for murder

Jamshedpur: A local court on Thursday sentenced one Binay Kumar Sahu (30) to rigorous imprisonment for life in connection with the murder of a woman at her residence in Kadma on June 28, 2016. Binay was arrested on July 22 the same year after he confessed to having killed Khemlata Devi (43) with whom he had had an intimate relationship.