Infant raped, killed by drunk in Pune

Pune: A one-year-old girl was allegedly raped and killed by a 22-year-old drunken man in Pune. The girl, whose body was found on Friday morning, had gone missing since Thursday evening. The police, within hours, nabbed the accused with the help of CCTV images that captured him abducting the child.

The girl was staying with her family on a footpath in Pune. The family had come to Pune from Chennai a week ago and took to begging to earn a livelihood.

Dayanad Gawade, police inspector, local crime branch, Pune rural police, said, “We checked CCTV footage available with nearby shops. In one still, the accused was seen carrying the girl. Within four hours we arrested him.”

The accused, identified as Malhari Haribhau Bansode, has been arrested and has accepted his crime, according to the police. Mr Gawade said, “The girl’s grandfather on June 14 lodged a complaint that his one-year-old granddaughter was missing.”

Mr Gawade added, “The family stayed on footpaths in front of a garment shop on the Pune-Solapur highway. Since the evening of June 14, the victim went missing; the family registered a complaint with Loni Kalbhor police. On June 15, police found the body of the girl behind bushes near nullah at a few kilometres away from where they were residing.”

He said, “Her body had many marks. She was sent to Sassoon General Hospital for a post-mortem. As per the report, she was raped and suffocated.”