Pune Court Awards Death Penalty To Man For Rape And Murder Of Two Year Old Girl
Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 1st March 2022: A special court in Pune has awarded the death penalty to a 38-year-old man for raping and then killing a two-year-old girl in Velhe taluka of the district.
Principal District Judge Sanjay Deshmukh ordered to hang Sanjay Baban Katkar, a resident of Kadve in Velhe taluka, by neck till his death.
On 15th February 2021, the girl had gone missing and her parents had lodged a complaint with Velhe police station under Pune rural police. Suspecting her kidnapping, Superintendent of Police (Pune rural) Dr Abhinav Deshmukh had formed eight teams to search the girl. He had camped there to supervise the search operation.
On the next day, she was found murdered in a culvert on road between Malkhed and Thoptewadi. Medical examinations revealed that she was raped before being killed.
Accordingly, offences under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were added.
According to police, the girl was playing outside her home. While playing with some children, she had gone till a bus stop, about 200 meters away, when Katkar lured her away promising to buy chocolatesa and chips for her. He boarded an autorickshaw but got down at Malkhed before the destination for which he had paid the fare.
“We showed photo of the girl in the area and a shopkeeper and a woman identified her to be the girl who was with a man. With the help of villagers, we launched a search and found her body in a culvert on the next day. We had also recovered his jacket from the spot”, SP Deshmukh said at a press conference today.
Dr Deshmukh said, “Within 48 hours, our team nabbed Katkar from a remote place where he was hiding. There was no mobile network in that area. We had recovered his clothes, CCTV footage, as well as recorded statement of an autorickshaw driver, shopkeeper as well as a woman who had seen the girl with him. Chemical analysis and DNA report sealed his fate. He is a labourer and hails from a village located about five kilometres from the deceased’s village.”
The investigation team included then Additional SP Vivek Patil, DySP Sai Bhore-Patil, Local Crime Branch (LCB) Inspector Padmakar Ghanwat, and Velhe police station’s Assistant Police Inspector Manoj Pawar, ASI SS Badal, RS Gaikwad, Head Constable AN Adwal, Naik AP Shinde, Constables AR Salunkhe, SR Omase, VS More and DA Jadhav.
Public prosecutor Vilas Pathare conducted the trial in a fast track court while Naik Prasad Mandke and ASI Vidyadhar Nichit coordinated with court and investigation team.
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