Mumbai: A couple arrested for rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Kalyan, Maharashtra was on Thursday remanded to the seven-days police custody. The wife has told the police that her husband Vishal Gawli (35) raped and murdered the girl at their home when she was not at home. The wife, who works in a bank, told the police that she helped her husband to clean blood stains and dispose of the body because she feared that he would kill her too. Gawli had run away to Buldhana after committing the crime on Monday. He was arrested on Wednesday from Shegaon in Buldhana.
Gawli, a habitual criminal with two molestation and one rape case against him, kidnapped the victim on Monday at around 4.30pm from her neighbourghood, took her to his house and raped her before killing her and dumped her body at an isolated location near Bapgaon in Bhiwandi with the help of his wife.
Both took an autorickshaw around 8.30 pm and dumped the girl’s body near a cemetery. They returned home and cleaned all the blood stains. The police have also arrested the rickshaw driver Gawli was nabbed from Buldhana based on the information provided by his 25-year-old wife Sakshi and his mobile phone location. He was arrested with the help of local police and brought to Mumbai on Wednesday evening. Sakshi Both he and his wife were produced in court on Thursday.
Victim’s father lodged a missing complaint at the Kolsewadi police station at around 11pm on Monday, after failing to locate her for several hours. On Tuesday morning, her body, with injury and bleeding marks in her abdomen, was found among the bushes near Bapgaon.
According to the police, Sakshi is the third wife of the accused. She told the police that he had raped and murdered the girl before she returned home from duty at around 7pm. “Gawli told his wife about the rape and murder. She claimed that she was shocked, but decided to help him in destroying the evidence because she feared that he would kill her too if she refused to help,” a police source said.
After dumping the victim’s body and cleaning blood stains from the house, Gawli was seen buying a bottle of liquor at a liquor shop in Kalyan before he left for Buldhana. While Sakshi remained at Kalyan, Vishal went to Shegaon in Buldhana district, from where his wife hails. He was planning to stay with his relatives. He also tried to change his appearance to evade police. He was arrested when he was stepping out of the barbershop after shaving off his beard.