In a gruesome incident reported from Palamu district of Jharkhand, a 16-year-old daughter of a local BJP leader was found hanging from a tree in Lalimati forest on Wednesday. The girl went missing on June 7 in the morning.

Police said one of the eyes of the minor girl was gouged out before she was allegedly killed.

The girl's body was cremated at the local crematorium on Wednesday evening. A student of Class 10, victim was the eldest of the BJP leader's five children. 

Meanwhile, police have arrested one suspect identified as 23-year-old Pradeep Kumar Singh Dhanuk in connection with the case. The arrest came following analysis of Call Data Records (CDR) of a mobile phone recovered from the scene of the crime.

The victim's family said that she went missing after she left home on June 7. A missing persons report was filed by the family on Tuesday.

"The police were searching for her when locals found her body hanging from a tree in the forest near Budhabar village," the report quoted Ashok Kumar, station in-charge (SI) of Panki police station, as saying.  

Police suspect that the victim was brutally thrashed before she was hanged from a tree to make it look like a suicide. The family of the victim alleged that she was raped before her murder.