Maternal uncle in net for Dhayari teenager’s rape and murder at home

PUNE: The Dhayari girl found dead at her home on Thursday was raped and throttled to death by her maternal uncle.

The 30-year-old man was arrested from his home at Narhe, off Katraj-Dehu road bypass, on Saturday — within 12 hours after the Sinhagad Road police registered a murder case on Friday evening after getting the preliminary medical report from the Sassoon General Hospital. The man throttled the girl to death because she retaliated vehemently when he tried to rape her, police said.

Footage of CCTV cameras near the victim’s house in the Pokale Vasti area in Dhayari helped police crack the case. A team headed by deputy commissioner police (Zone III) Mangesh Shinde, senior inspector Sardar Patil, inspector Sangeeta Yadav, sub-inspector Girish Shinde, and constables Shrikant Dagade and Yogesh Zende zeroed in on the man after closely scrutinizing the footage.

Shinde said the girl (17) was found dead on her bed. “There were no injury marks on her neck or head. The bed was not disturbed and the clot- hes she was wearing were normal. Such a crime scene did not reveal that there was any aggression by anyone against her,” he said.

“After starting the investigations, we found that there were a few CCTV cameras installed in the vicinity and in a housing society. While studying the footage recorded on these cameras, we saw a man walking in and out of the building in which the victim stayed on Thursday afternoon. Barring him, no one went to the residence of the victim. He was identified as the girl’s maternal uncle,” Shinde said.

The deceased girl was a student of a city college. She returned home in the afternoon on Thursday. Then her maternal uncle came and told her that he was hungry. The police said he asked her to make food for him.

When the girl started cooking, her maternal uncle tried to throttle her. The girl then retaliated and raised an alarm. But her uncle applied more pressure and she fainted. Following this, her uncle raped her. He throttled the girl to death after she regained consciousness when he was raping her, the police said. Her uncle then dressed her, combed her hair, cleaned the bed and left the house.

“The victim’s brother came home later. He knocked on the door of their house several times, but his sister did not open it. He then sought help of neighbours to break open the door. When he entered the house, he found her in an unconscious state,” Shinde said.

“A doctor of a private hospital realized that the girl was murdered. Her body was later shifted to the Sassoon General Hospital for post-mortem. The team conducting her autopsy realized that the girl was throttled to death,” he said.

After receiving the medical report, the police filed the murder case on Friday evening. The report also mentioned that she was sexually assaulted.

Shinde said the girl’s mother was a labourer at Market Yard and her father was a construction site worker. “The suspect is an autorickshaw driver and stays with his family at Narhe,” he said.