Mumbai-Bengaluru highway traffic hit as hundreds protest minor's sexual assault, murder in Pune

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like Traffic on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway in Maharashtra's Pune was severely disrupted on Saturday as hundreds of people blocked the route in protest of the rape and murder of a 3.5-year-old girl in Bhor taluka's Nasrapur village. Though it was a peaceful sit-in, the situation escalated when demonstrators tried to block the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, triggering massive traffic jams. (ANI)Police arrested a 65-year-old man for sexually assaulting and killing the girl in a cow shed in the village. The girl's family members and other protestors placed her body on the ground in the Navale Bridge area, demanding strict punishment for the accused. Though it was a peaceful sit-in, the situation escalated when demonstrators tried to block the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, triggering massive traffic jams. Several purported visuals on social media showed huge queues of vehicles on the highway. Pune traffic police had also issued an advisory, asking motorists to avoid the Wadgaon Bridge stretch and use alternate routes until traffic movement was restored. Later, police officials dispersed the demonstrators from the roads. Shortly after midnight, amid tight police security, the girl's last rites were performed at Pune's Vaikunt crematorium. The grandparents of the 3.5-year-old began looking for her at around 3pm after she had been missing for a few hours. However, when they failed to find her, they informed the locals and filed a complaint at the Rajgadh police station in Bhor taluka, HT reported earlier. Meanwhile, villagers skimmed through CCTV footage in a bid to find the girl. But they saw that a 65-year-old had entered a cow shed with the child. The villagers tracked the man down and thrashed him by a riverside. Police also scanned the footage and went to the cow shed, where they found the girl with her head smashed and covered with cow dung. ALSO READ | Prime suspect in sexual assault of 15-year-old Delhi boy held Soon after, police began looking for the 65-year-old, only to find him being beaten up by the locals. They arrested the man, with an investigating officer of Pune Rural police saying that he confessed to the crime. According to the man's confession, as mentioned by the officer, he "lured the child into the cattle shed on the pretext of showing her a calf, where he sexually assaulted and killed her." Sandeep Singh Gill, superintendent of police, Pune Rural, told HT that the investigation is underway. Police reportedly suspect that after sexually assaulting her, the accused allegedly killed her by hitting her face with a stone and hid the body under a heap of cow dung in a bid to conceal the evidence. ALSO READ | Pratapgarh: Absconding 50-yr-old sexual assault accused shot, nabbed The Rajgadh police station registered a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 137(2), 103,64,74, 140 (a), 140(c) and sections 4,6,8 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Later, a sessions court in Pune remanded the accused to police custody till May 7. Superintendent of police, Sandeep Singh Gill, also revealed that the accused had previous cases of molestation registered under the POCSO Act in 1998 and 2015, and was acquitted in a case in 2019. ALSO READ | Class 8 boy alleges sexual assault in Faridabad school; 2 minors held “He is an elderly man with a similar pattern of behaviour. The victim is from Pune and had come to visit her grandmother to the village on a summer vacation. As the village is sparsely populated, police are investigating how the accused lured the child while she was playing," Gill said, as per an earlier HT report. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis condemned the incident and said he would demand capital punishment for the 65-year-old in court. Deputy chief minister and Pune's guardian minister Sunetra Pawar met the girl's family on Saturday and assured them of stringent action against the accused along with a fast-track trial. Deputy CM and Shiv Sena supremo Eknath Shinde directed the Pune Rural police to gather concrete evidence and build a watertight case. He said that efforts should be made to ensure the accused gets the death penalty.