A ten-year-old speech and hearing impaired girl was raped and murdered in a village in Palwal here. The police suspect the culprit could be a fellow villager.

The girl’s body was discovered in the fields on the outskirts of the village on Tuesday evening, a day after she had gone missing. The family alleged that her eyes had been gouged out.

But Palwal Police Superintendent Deepak Gahlawat said the body had decomposed to give the impression that the eyes were damaged.

Mr. Gahlawat said that autopsy had confirmed rape, but there were no signs of brutality. He said the girl was strangled to death.

The family reported the matter to the police on Tuesday noon when they were unable to find her after several hours of searching.

They alleged that a head constable at Hodal Police Station abused them and initially refused to take their complaint. The family said the case was registered only after political intervention.

A few hours after the complaint was filed, the girl’s body was spotted in the fields.