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Class 8 Pune girl killed by stalker, 22, with sickle in front of her friends: Cop
The Pune police said the Class 8 girls faced such a brutal attack by her stalker that she died on the spot.
PUNE: A 14-year-old girl at a south Pune playground was repeatedly attacked with a sickle by a 22-year-old man who had been stalking her on Tuesday evening, police said. The man was a relative who had stayed with the girl’s family but was told to leave after the family suspected his motives.
The girl, a class 8 student, died within minutes of the brutal attack that took place in full view of the children present at the Bibwewadi playground. The girl and her friends were just about to start their first game of kabbadi when the prime suspect, Shubham Bhagwat aka Hrishikesh, reached there with his two accomplices on a bike.
The man asked the girl to come aside since he wanted to speak with her. She did. Witnesses told the police that they appeared to have had an argument before the girl faced the bloody attack.
Namrata Patil, deputy commissioner of police (Zone V) said the girl was at a playground where a local group holds kabaddi practice and fitness classes for children.
The the attacker initially targeted her neck, then elsewhere on the body.
“The attack was so brutal that the girl died on the spot,” Namrata Patil said.
Sunil Zaware, senior police inspector, Bibwewadi police station, said Shubham was a relative.
“Shubham had been stalking her for some time though after knowing about this, girl’s parents warned him to leave their house and he went to stay in another area of Chinchwad,” said Zaware.
Police officers are still piecing together the exact sequence of events. An officer said a toy pistol recovered not far from where the girl died indicated that Shubham or his accomplices might have used it to scare others at the playground not to intervene.
The two persons who accompanied the prime accused have been detained
after hacking her to death, all three accused fled the spot though two suspects were apprehended up from Upper Indiranagar area.
“We have detained two attackers who were with the main accused Shubham Bhagwat,” said Zaware, adding that police was trying to trace Bhagwat.
