Andhra Pradesh’s Nandyala police have been questioning three minor boys in connection with the disappearance of a nine-year-old girl in the Muchumarri village. It was on July 7 that the police received a missing complaint from the girl's parents, prompting them to launch a search.

Several media reports have been dubbing the incident as a gang rape and murder, but the police have not issued any official statement on this. “While the media has been reporting it as a gang rape, until either the child is found or the child’s body is retrieved and we conduct an autopsy, we cannot speak to the nature of the crime,” a source in the Nandyala police department told TNM.

The girl’s body is suspected to have been dumped in the Muchumarri Lift Irrigation canal, and the police are working with National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force teams to locate it. “Drone cameras and boats are also being utilised in the search operation,” the police source added.

Meanwhile, Nandyala Member of Parliament Byreddy Shabari, accompanied by Collector G Rajakumari and Superintendent of Police K Raghuveer Reddy, reached the village of the victim and met with the family.