‘Minor was killed for not helping in crimes’

Police said Jugdar, a history-sheeter on Mumbai police records for his alleged involvement in crimes such as murder and robbery, had a ‘relationship’ with the deceased girl. He allegedly wanted the girl to assist him in his crimes. Police suspect there were arguments between the girl and Jugdar as she was not willing to support him. This prompted Jugdar to get her murdered through his aides, police said.

Vishwa Pansare, superintendent, GRP (Pune) said, “Jugdar and the girl lived in the same area in Wadala. But Jugdar was already married. So, he made her stay with his aide Rahul in an apartment in Nalasopara, Mumbai.”

Police said the girl hailed from a lower middle-class family and is known to be a school dropout. The parents had not filed a missing person complaint, police added.

“She left home nearly a fortnight ago saying she was going with a female friend. But she started living at Nalasopara. On Jugdar’s instructions, the other two suspects strangulated her with her dupatta around 11 pm on Tuesday. The suspects stuffed the body in a suitcase, which they took to Sion in a cab. Here, they hired another car, took the suitcase to Talegaon and dumped it at an isolated spot on the railway station premises on Wednesday,” an officer said.

GRP recovered the suitcase from a spot on platform number two of the Talegaon railway station around 11 am on Wednesday. The GRP team had to cut open the suitcase as it was locked. Cops found the body of the girl with her hands and legs tied. The mouth had been covered by a handkerchief and there were strangulation marks on the neck, police said.

There was no CCTV around the spot. However, during investigation, the GRP team found a SIM card, which helped them in solving the case.

Following the clues obtained from the SIM card, two GRP teams arrested the suspects Rahul and Ishaan at Nalasopara in Mumbai. Police said the duo were friends as they were classmates in college.

During sustained interrogation, the duo admitted to murdering the girl as per the instructions of Jugdar. The GRP team then laid a trap and napped Jugdar in Antop Hill area with the help of Mumbai police. Police suspect Jugdar was involved in economic offences and wanted the girl to help him in those, too.

GRP has booked the three suspects under sections 302, 201 of the IPC. They produced the suspects before the magistrate court on Friday. GRP demanded their custody for 14 days. Assistant public prosecutor Vaman Koli told the court that custodial interrogation was required to confirm the motive and to know if the suspects were helped by more persons.

Defence lawyer B A Aloor argued that the GRP had ‘falsely arrested’ the trio. He said their custody was not essential because there is nothing the GRP wants to recover. Judicial magistrate (first class) S S Patil remanded the suspects in police custody till May 13.

The post-mortem report of the girl stated the cause of death as “due to head injury… With injury to spine and spinal cord with ligature strangulation.”