A missing five-year-old girl has been found murdered in a suspected case of human sacrifice in the Charaideo district of India's Assam state, police said on Wednesday.
Officers have arrested an occult practitioner and detained 10 other people, including her father, for questioning.
The girl's older sister filed a complaint with the police on Tuesday claiming she was kidnapped by unidentified people from their home while she was asleep, news agency PTI reported.
The child's body was recovered from the Singlu River on Tuesday night. Red cloth, ashes, and materials used in "tantric" worship rituals were also reportedly found on the riverbank.
While the police have arrested the occult practitioner, a manhunt is is underway for another man who is believed to have plotted the alleged human sacrifice.
Similar crimes have recently been reported in India, the police said. A four-year-old girl went missing in 2016 before officers recovered her mutilated body days later and arrested a man for beheading her.
In January this year, a couple from Andhra Pradesh state's Madanapalle town killed their two young daughters in the belief that they would be reborn a day later.