Mathura, Sep 2 (IANS): A nine-year-old girl, who was reported missing, was found dead in a field in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district, officials said, adding the post-mortem examination confirmed that she was raped before being murdered.

The victim had gone missing on Monday evening. Her body was found outside Dehrua village in Mathura on Tuesday.

There has been no arrests so far.

Mathura SSP Guarav Grover said the post-mortem report found blood clots on the victim's private parts, which were injured.

He said that the cause of death was identified as 'asphyxia' due to manual compression of the neck.

According to the police, the girl had gone to buy a few things around 8 p.m. on Monday from a nearby shop with another girl of the same age group, who returned to her house alone.

When the victim did not return till about 10 p.m, her father started searching for her frantically but when he was unable to locate her, he lodged a police complaint around midnight.

The police has registered an FIR under section 363 (kidnapping) of IPC, which was converted to 302 (murder), 376 (rape) of IPC and under POCSO Act after the girl's body was found.

Upon questioning, the girl, who had accompanied the victim to the shop, revealed on Tuesday that her uncle, Banwari, 38, had taken both of them with him on his bike.

While he dropped her back to her house, he took the victim with him.