Crime Files: How probe into Pune girl’s sexual abuse case revealed role of serial offender who targeted minors

Four teams of officers and personnel from the crime detection branch worked from various angles. One of the teams inspected footage from dozens of CCTV cameras installed in the area and on various approach routes.

After combing through nearly 100 such files, two constables got a crucial lead in the form of a partial registration number plate of a motorbike. They could see the last four digits but the registration series was not clear.

The police zeroed in on 16 vehicles matching the partial number plate. “We cross-referenced the known owners of these bikes with some details regarding the suspect’s appearance which we had obtained during the initial probe,” said an officer who was part of the investigation. “We zeroed in on one Nitin Maruti Nanaware, 45, a resident of Dhankawadi and detained him for questioning from Pune’s Narhe area where he had worked,” the officer added.

Once the probe confirmed that Nanaware had taken advantage of the minor, he was placed under arrest. The team soon realised there was more to it when the investigation led to further revelations.

Serial offender

The crime was not Nanaware’s first offence, with the probe indicating that between 2007 and 2013, he was booked in at least six other sexual offence cases, most of which involved minors.

Two cases of kidnapping and molestation of minor girls were registered against him at the Swargate police station in 2007 and three more were registered in 2011, 2012 and 2013 at Sahakarnagar, Bharati Vidyapeeth, and Bibwewadi police stations, respectively, under the same charges. Of these, the victims in the Bharati Vidyapeeth and Bibwewadi cases were minors.

In 2013, Nanaware was also booked in another case involving the kidnapping and rape of a nine-year-old girl in May 2012 and was subsequently sentenced. He was released from prison in May 2023. Months later, he would target the eight-year-old girl in Pune. The case is currently pending before the court.