Pimpri-Chinchwad: The whole Pune District went into shock on Sunday when it was found out that a five-year-old girl had been murdered near Urse in Maval Tehsil. Police suspected from the start that the girl had been sexually assaulted prior to the accused murdering her. That's why the police refused to reveal the identity of the girl but, however, refrained from confirming the incident, waiting for the post-mortem report. The report was presented to the police on Monday morning, and it confirmed the girl was sexually assaulted.
The 27-year-old mother of the deceased girl has filed a complaint at Shirgaon Parandwadi Police Station. The accused, Sameer Kumar Sitaram Mandal (32, Urse), was detained on Sunday. All the involved people are natives of Jharkhand state.
The accused has been booked under BNS sections 103 (punishment for murder), 137 (kidnapping), 64 (punishment for rape), 65 (punishment for rape in certain cases), and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012 (POCSO Act).
How Did the Crime Happen?
Police said that the accused and the victims lived in the same chawl near Urse along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway under the limits of Shirgaon Police Station. The victim’s parents had dire financial conditions, so both of them used to work, many times leaving their eight-year-old son and five-year-old deceased daughter by themselves in the home.
On Saturday afternoon, the victim and her brother were playing near their home. The accused, who is involved in labour work, came there and lured the victim by giving her a chocolate. He promised her more chocolates and sweets and took her. The eight-year-old brother tried to stop them, but they didn't, and they left. The parents of the victim were not at home when this happened.
The accused took the girl to a secluded place around two kilometres away from their home. The accused sexually assaulted the child and then killed her. He left the body there, and then he came back home and slept. However, when the girl’s mother returned home at night, she couldn't see her daughter. She rushed to the Shirgaon Parandwadi Police Station, and a missing person’s case was filed at 11 pm on Saturday night.
Accused Identified & Motive Clear
Police Inspector Vishal Patil, in charge of the Shirgaon Parandwadi Police Station, told The Free Press Journal, “Considering the case was serious, we started investigating the matter promptly. Multiple teams were formed, and at night we searched the area around their house. We started a technical investigation and analysed CCTV footage from the area.”
The victim’s brother told the police about the neighbour taking his sister, and the police detained him for questioning. Even the CCTV footage revealed that the victim was with him. At first, the accused tried to give vague answers and misled the police. He told them, “I gave the promised sweets to the girl and dropped her off in a square near her home. She must have wandered off somewhere.”
However, the police officials investigating him knew he was hiding something. After he was interrogated skilfully, he finally confessed to the crime of murdering her. But he didn't confess to anything related to sexually assaulting her. After over 14 hours of the missing complaint being filed, she was found dead on Sunday afternoon.
Police suspected she was sexually assaulted, but it wasn't confirmed. The post-mortem report revealed on Monday that the girl was indeed sexually assaulted and then killed. He was presented in front of a judge at Vadgaon Maval Court, and the judge granted him police custody.
When asked about the motive behind such a gruesome murder, PI Vishal Patil told The FPJ, “As per the investigation until now, the motive behind the sexual assault was perversion. However, he killed her after doing the gruesome act as he panicked. To prevent the girl from telling others, the accused killed her.”
