girl raped and murdered Chandrapur
A teenager was raped and murdered in Chandrapur district (Reuters)

The body of a teenage girl who had been raped and murdered was found down a well in a village in India.

Her body was found in a village well on the outskirts of Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, the Times of India has reported.

The discovery follows a similar incident, where three sisters, aged six, nine and 11, were raped and killed then thrown down a well in the Bhandara district of Maharashtra, 110 miles away.

The 17-year-old victim had been living with her grandmother in the village when she went missing.

Relatives searched for her throughout the day and the girl's scarf near a farm well on the outskirts of the village. They found the body dumped down the well.

Her parents accused a member of the village's governing council.

Police have arrested the man they named. A post mortem has been carried out on the victim.

Little progress

In the Bhandara district, villagers where the three sisters were found have threatened to resume a highway blockade unless progress is made in the police investigation.

After the girls' bodies were found, villagers protested outside the police station because the deaths had been listed as accidental.

They refused to leave until a case of murder, kidnapping and rape had been lodged.

A number of suspects have been questioned but no arrests have been made, a senior police officer said.

The deaths of the sisters and the latest victim's body found in the well have added to growing anger at violent sexual crimes against women across India. The attacks came just a few months after a 23-year-old student was gang-raped and murdered on a bus in New Delhi.

Since her death, the government has enacted a new law that increases the minimum prison term for rape from seven to 10 years, up to a maximum of 20 years.

The death penalty can be used in extreme rape cases where the victim is left in a coma or killed.