Bengaluru: The decomposed body of a six-year-old girl, who had gone missing for the past four days, was found in a carton in her neighbour’s house at Veerabhadranagar here on Sunday evening.

According to the police, Harshita, the only child to her parents – Shivakumar and Saraswathi had gone missing on April 20 and her family logded a missing complaint the next day.

The police had suspected the involvement of one of the neighbours, Anil who had gone absconding since Thursday. However he had told the neighbours that he was going to Kalaburagi to bring his wife to Bengaluru.

On Sunday the police received a call informing them about a foul smell emanating from the locked house of Anil. The Girinagar police then broke open the door of the house and found the girl’s body in a cardboard box.

“The suspect has used a blunt weapon to kill the child. Harshita had sustained massive injuries on her head,” said a police officer.

Meanwhile, it is suspected that Anil may have raped the child before hacking her to death. However, the police were tight-lipped about it.

The police said a post-mortem report would reveal the cause of the death.