A three-year-old girl was mauled to death by a leopard at a village near Kasara in Thane district in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.
The victim, Deepali Bhagat, was sleeping beside her mother in their thatched hut at Doipada village under Sahapur taluka near Kasara when the leopard dragged away the child at around 5AM, according to the police statement.
Later, the villagers found her mauled body in a nearby forest.
The Kasara police went to the spot and sent the body for postmortem.
Sahapur MLA Pandurang Barora said forest officials were summoned to the spot along with the medical officers and policemen.
Barora said an immediate relief of Rs 20,000 has been given to the family. An additional assistance of Rs 5 lakh would be given to them within a couple of days by the forest department, he added.
