Jajpur: In a gruesome incident, a pregnant minor girl was killed and her skeleton was found in forest under Daitari police limit in Keonjhar district.

The deceased is identified as Lemba (14), daughter of Surendra Singh of Gurujangpur village in Kaans panchayat under Kaliapani police station of Jajpur district.

Police recovered the deceased's skull, bones and bloodstained clothes from the site during search operation in the forest adjacent to Talapada village in the district on Thursday.

The mother of deceased identified the clothes belonging to her daughter yesterday.

Initially, police found it difficult to collect information about the deceased as no missing complaint was lodged with any police station.

However, the Daitari police managed to meet the victim's family with help of Kaliapani police.

According to reports, the deceased was found pregnant just a week before Raja festival. She had eloped with a man identified as Mitu Dehuri (30) of Dehuri sahi of neighbouring Ostapala village and had married him secretly. Mitu, who is at large, was already married and he has two sons.

After the family of the deceased was confirmed about murder of their daughter, the mother officially lodged an FIR. A case has been registered under section 302, 201 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act)-6. Police have launched investigation into the case.