Girl not killed by animals, was murdered after rape bid in Maharashtra

NAVI MUMBAI: Police probing the incident of an eight-year-old girl , who was found dead in Kargaon village forest area in Khalapur taluka on December 18 after it was suspected that she was attacked by some wild animal, said that the victim was murdered after rape bid.
The police have arrested a 19-year-old youth Ajay Chavan, a local villager for attempting to sexual assault the girl and then killing her by strangulating and fatally hitting her head with a stone. The murder case was registered after the girl's post mortem report from JJ hospital, Mumbai stated 'Death due to strangulation with head injury (unnatural)', which ruled out the wild animal attack, as seemed prima facie due to injuries on her body that was bitten by stray dogs while her body was lying in the forest for several hours.
The Khalapur police zeroed-in on the suspect Ajay Chavan and interrogated him, he confessed to his crime that he had attempted to sexually assault the girl and then killed her. Hence, the police have invoked Pocso Act against the accused along with IPC sections 302 and 201 for murder and causing disappearance of evidence of offence, informed API Ganesh Karad of Khalapur police station.
API Karad said, "Raigad SP Somnath Gharge had formed multiple police teams from Khalapur, Khopoli, Pen and Neral to investigate the case. On December 18, as grampanchayat elections were in progress there was also cricket match in Kargaon village, it was a herculean task to zero-in on the suspect from a huge crowd. Also, there was no CCTV camera surveillance in the village area. The prime suspect Ajay Chavan, who was one of the villagers to have seen the girl alone going into the forest was nailed after he gave evasive replies every time he was questioned by PSI Mahesh Kadam. When taken to task, he confessed to his crime that after he saw the girl alone walking along the isolated road near the forest, he forcibly took her inside the forest and attempted to sexually assault her.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court's directives on cases related to sexual assault)