An elderly woman, her son and minor granddaughter were found dead in their hut in a village in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, police said.
The incident occured in Dhawaidad village. The deceased were identified as Duhni Bai (65), her son Amrit Lal (40) and granddaughter Amrita Bai (14), Raigarh Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena said.
As per preliminary information, they had gone to a nearby forest to collect mahua flowers on Wednesday and returned to their hut in the night, he said.
Some residents spotted them lying dead on Thursday morning following which police were informed, he said.
Circumstantial evidence suggests they were hit on their heads with a stone resulting in their death. However, the exact cause of the death will be known only after postmortem, the official said.