Lucknow, March 27 (IANS): A 20-year-old woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the panchayat bhawan of a village under Tikaitganj police station limits here on Tuesday evening.

Senior police officials said that the woman had gone missing from home 12 hours ago.

The victim’s mother, meanwhile, raised suspicion that her daughter was raped and murdered as she had spotted three men near the crime scene when she was looking for her daughter the previous night.

Police officials said one of the suspects was taken into custody and further investigations were on.

The body has been sent for postmortem, and the doctors have been asked to share their opinion on a possible sexual assault on the deceased woman.

Circle Officer Ramsanehi Ghat (Barabanki), J S Mishra, said the woman’s body was spotted lying near the panchayat bhawan by a local. The mother had told the police that her daughter went missing after she went out to attend the nature’s call on Monday.

The mother has also raised suspicion about the involvement of a youth from the same village as her family had strained relations with him following which he was taken into custody.