Residents of a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district set ablaze a liquor shop after the body of an 8-year-old girl was found in a lake, a police official has said.

Irate villagers, including the mother of the victim, alleged she was raped, murdered and her body thrown into the lake by a person or group of persons who had liquor at the vend, which was set on fire on Tuesday night, the official said.

“The girl's body was found on Tuesday night. A short post-mortem suggests she was physically assaulted,” Jabalpur (Rural) Additional Superintendent of Police Sonali Dubey told PTI over the phone.

“The situation is under control. Police have been deployed in the village to maintain law and order. Her short post-mortem was conducted on Thursday. We are awaiting the detailed autopsy report. We are investigating whether a single person or a group committed the crime and whether she was murdered and the body thrown into the lake,” Dubey said.

Some suspects have been picked up and are being questioned, the Additional SP said.

Meanwhile, MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari claimed that crime has been at a 30-year high under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.

“The people of Jabalpur must teach the BJP a lesson for such a state of affairs. CM Yadav must speak on this incident,” Patwari said.