42-year-old arrested for kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old girl
Man arrested for kidnapping, raping, and murdering 9-year-old girl in Bhiwandi. Second such case in 10 months. Accused lured victim with chocolate.
THANE: A 42-year-old man was arrested in Bhiwandi on Thursday by the crime branch officials for kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from his neighbourhood and then raping and murdering her. The officials from unit 2 of the Thane police crime branch said the accused had lured the minor girl with chocolate. He was arrested within two hours after the incident was reported to the police.
This is the second case in 10 months in the Bhiwandi area. In September 2023, a six-year-old girl was raped and murdered. Later, the accused dumped her body in a bucket.
According to police, the nine-year-old victim lived with her family in a chawl in Govind Nagar, a neighbourhood in Bhiwandi’s Shanti Nagar area. The girl’s father is employed with a factory in the area and her mother works in a warehouse. They have three daughters and a son. The two elder sisters had gone with their mother to work and the brother had gone to school, and the victim was alone at home after she had returned from school when the incident took place on Thursday afternoon.
Police officials said on Thursday afternoon, the accused who lived on the floor above the victim’s apartment lured her with a chocolate and took her to his room where she was raped. The man later slit her throat with a knife. He then locked the door from outside and fled.
In the evening, the girl’s brother returned home from school, and upon noticing that the door of their house was closed, he peeped through the window to search for his sister. However, he couldn’t find her. Later, their mother and elder sister returned home and started searching for the girl.
During their search, a small boy in the vicinity pointed out that he had seen the girl going inside a room on the upper floor of their neighbour’s house. The worried family members then went to the room and found the girl’s body in a pool of blood.
Upon receiving information about the incident, the Shanti Nagar police sprung into action and arrived at the crime scene, conducted a spot panchnama, and sent the body for forensic examination at the JJ Hospital.
Apart from the local police, unit 2 of the crime branch, led by police inspector Yogesh Awhad started a parallel investigation. The police searched nearby locations such as liquor dens, open fields, closed and dilapidated houses, and loom factories thoroughly and meticulously.
Following information from sources, within two hours, the suspect was apprehended from an empty, dilapidated house in Narayan Compound, Shanti Nagar. He confessed to the crime after which he was handed over to the Shanti Nagar Police station for further investigation.
The accused have been booked under sections 103(1), (punished with death or imprisonment for life) 64(2)(i) (commits rape, on a woman incapable of giving consent), 64(2)(l) (while committing rape causes grievous bodily harm), 137(2) (kidnapping) among other sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) 8, 10, 12 (punishment for sexual offences against children) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.