The villager was found lying in a stream in Jamba village of Thane district early yesterday, Sub-Inspector P S Naik of Vikramgadh Police Station said.
Police initially registered a case of accidental death and sent the body for postmortem.
However, blood stains spotted on the main village street turned the case on its head. Later it was revealed it was in fact a case of murder and the victim was Dharma Soma Baraf, a tribal farmer from the village.
Police have registered a murder case and launched a manhunt for the killers.
In another incident, the body of an identified woman, aged 30-35, was recovered from village Baneli under Kalyan taluka of the district.
The body bore stab wounds and the head was found to have been smashed with stones, Sub-Inspector S K PAwar of Kalyan taluka Police Station said.