65-year-old man held for 3-yr-old’s rape-murder in Pune village

District Superintendent of police (SP) Sandeep Singh Gill said the accused appears to be a serial offender, as he was earlier booked in two molestation cases in 1998 and 2015. The victim in the 2015 case was also a minor and the accused was booked under POCSO Act but acquitted by a court in 2019, he said.

The police arrested the accused and lodged a first information report (FIR) against the accused by the victim’s mother, under sections 137 (2), 103, 64, 74, 140 (1), 140 (3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 4, 3, 8, 12 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). Police produced the accused before a special court in Pune and sought his custody to investigate whether the accused had similarly sexually assaulted any other girls. Police told the court that an investigation is on to find out whether the accused tried to meet the victim in the past. Police said a probe was also underway to determine how exactly the accused killed the victim. Police said they want to recover the object used for the murder. The court remanded the accused to police custody till May 7 for further investigation.

According to an initial probe, the girl had been residing with her parents and sister in Pune city, but was currently staying at her grandmother’s house at a village in Pune district.

On Friday afternoon, while she was playing near a local temple, the accused allegedly lured her and took her to a cowshed. He allegedly raped the girl, stoned her to death, and then dumped her body in cow dung at the spot.

When the girl failed to return home, her family and locals started searching for her. CCTV footage revealed the accused had taken the girl with him around 3.15 pm. The girl’s body was found in the cowshed and the accused was caught.

After receiving the information, a police team reached the spot and took the accused into custody. The girl’s body was taken to a hospital for a post-mortem exam.

As news of the incident spread, people gathered in numbers to protest and staged a rasta roko on the Pune-Satara highway on Friday night. Protesters refused to take the girl’s body for her last rites, and alleged the accused had a criminal record and had been arrested in sexual assault cases in the past.

The protesters cleared the highway after the SP spoke to them and assured them of a speedy investigation in the case. The chargesheet against the accused will be submitted in 15 days, and the case will be heard by a fast-track court, the SP added.

(Inputs by Shubhangi Khapre)