A 62-year-old woman was brutally murdered in a wheat field in Madhya Pradesh, with police investigating the possibility of sexual assault along with the killing.

The incident came to light on Wednesday morning when the victim’s younger son could not find her in the family hut. Assuming she had gone out for some work, he went to a nearby field for irrigation and discovered his mother lying unconscious in the field with her body soaked in blood.

The son immediately informed the local police station. Police rushed to the spot and shifted the woman to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Her body was later sent for a post-mortem examination.

Preliminary findings from the post-mortem indicated that the woman had been subjected to extreme brutality. During the investigation, police also noticed a cot at the crime scene, which raised suspicion about the possibility of sexual assault before the murder. Authorities have launched a detailed probe to examine this angle.

The victim lived with her two sons, daughter-in-law and grandson after her husband passed away two years ago. On the night before the incident, the elder son had returned home late after completing irrigation work and was asleep. The daughter-in-law was away in Rajasthan as a migrant worker along with neighbours.

Meanwhile, police have taken the victim’s grandson into custody for questioning as part of the ongoing investigation.