Kalyan: 13-year-old girl went out to buy snacks, disappeared and was found dead a day later; police suspect rape

Police suspect a neighbor, previously arrested for assaulting the girl, to be involved. A manhunt is underway and the family is demanding strict action against the accused.

KALYAN: The body of a 13-year-old girl, who went missing on Monday after leaving home to buy snacks, was found on a deserted stretch of the Kalyan-Padgha road on Tuesday. Police suspect she was sexually assaulted.
Police suspect the involvement of a neighbor, who was arrested last year for allegedly assaulting the girl. Police have launched a manhunt for the suspect.
On Monday, around 4:30 p.m., the girl took Rs 20 from her mother and went out to buy snacks. When she did not return home until late in the evening, her mother began looking for her in the neighborhood.
After being informed that his daughter was missing, the father rushed home from work and joined the search. Later, the couple filed a missing person’s complaint at the Kolsewadi police station.
On Tuesday, Padgha police found the girl’s body 13 km from her home, abandoned in the bushes on a deserted road near Bapgaon area. Police sources said the girl was sexually assaulted before being murdered. The Padgha police sent the body to JJ Hospital for post-mortem to confirm their suspicions.
Kolsewadi police have recovered CCTV footage from the area to trace the route taken by the girl before she went missing and to find out if anyone had approached her.
The girl’s family demanded strict action against the accused. “There are strong suspicions that the neighbor who molested my daughter last December is behind the crime. I am asking the police to arrest him and verify my suspicions. If he is found guilty, I demands the maximum punishment for him,” the teenager’s father told TOI.
Local BJP MLA Sulabha Gaikwad and former Shiv Sena functionary Mahesh Gaikwad met the Kolsewadi police officers and demanded strict action against the accused.