A 15-year-old girl in India died after suffering a ruptured liver and lungs following a brutal gang rape.
The girl went missing after she left home for school on Jan. 9, according to the Daily Mail.
The girl, from the northern Indian state of Haryana, was found dead on Jan. 13 with 19 serious injuries to her body, police said. The injuries reportedly indicated she had been tortured.
“At least four men are suspected to be behind the crime,” said district police chief Abhishek Garg. “A massive search is underway to arrest the perpetrators.”
The teen’s liver and lungs were ruptured and an object was stuffed inside her privates, according to doctors.
The victim’s body was found half-naked near a canal roughly 60 miles away from her home, near the city of Kurukshetra. She was wrapped in a torn shirt, with wounds all over her face, chest, neck and lips.
Police said at least four people were involved in her rape and torture. It was confirmed that she was also drowned.
Investigators believe the teen died two days before her body was found.
“The body had many injury marks, the private parts were mutilated and there were lots of internal injuries,” said SK Dattarwal, a doctor at the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences. “Signs of sexual assault are visible and it looks like at least four people were responsible, a hard and blunt thing was inserted inside her, signs of drowning also found.”
The girl’s father was heartbroken following the discovery of his daughter’s body.
“She had left for tuition classes, as usual,” he said, according to The Sun. “When I went to pick her up at 8 p.m., the teacher informed me that she had not arrived that day. She was nowhere to be found. Around 10 p.m. that night we filed a police complaint.”
The victim’s father criticized the Indian administration for the role they played in his daughter’s death.
“My daughter was kidnapped and raped,” he said. “She was tortured. If the administration had done its job well, an incident like this would have never happened.”
Local police arrested two men in connection with the crime. Both men are neighbors of the victim, according to Panipat police chief Rahul Sharma.
The two men arrested both reportedly confessed to luring the girl to their house before raping and killing her, the police chief revealed.