Bhubaneswar:
Odisha Police on Friday recovered the half-burnt body of an unidentified girl near a canal in Odisha's Puri district but it was yet to be established if it was a case of rape.
The body dressed in a black salwar with mehendi marks on the palms was found beside the Haripur-Balanga canal, about 25 kilometres from Bhubaneswar.
"We have recovered the half-burnt body of a girl aged about 20 years. Her identity is yet to be ascertained," Puri Superintendent of Police Anup Sahul told reporters in Bhubaneswar.
Residents of Samarai Sasan village found the body on Friday morning and informed police, the SP said, adding there were no burn injuries on the victim's hands and legs while half of her face was burnt.
Asked if it was a case of rape, the SP said "the details will be known after we get the postmortem report from the district headquarters hospital."
Police found some liquor bottles and other materials from a half-built house near the canal.
A dog squad and scientific teams from Puri were investigating the killing.
The police suspected the girl was killed somewhere else and the body set ablaze near the canal.
The spot where the body was found was only four kilometer from Pipili where a dalit girl was attacked and raped in November 2011. She died in July 2012 after being in coma for about seven months.