Pune (Maharashtra), Dec 26: In a shocking case, the Pune Police have arrested a 54-year-old man for the alleged kidnapping, rape and murder of two minor girls in the Rajgurunagar area of the city.

The man, identified as Ajay Das, is accused of committing the heinous double crime with the two siblings aged nine and eight before he absconded, said a police official.

The dual crime occurred on Wednesday when the two girls were playing outside their home around noon, but later suddenly ‘disappeared’.

The family, which was keeping an eye on them, started a frantic search in the vicinity but failed to trace them and finally in the evening lodged a complaint with the Khed Police Station.

Responding promptly, Police Inspector Prabhakar More formed teams to launch a system effort to trace the two missing sisters but did not get any clues.

Late in the night, around 10.30 p.m., the police and the family inspected the two siblings’ room on the upper floors of their building and made the shocking discovery.

The two girls’ bodies were found at Das’ home, in a huge drum filled with water, with their heads below and their feet up, pointing at murder by forcible drowning.

As the discovery created a sensation in the vicinity, the case was handed over to a woman Investigation Officer Snehal Raje, said the officials, while the victims’ bodies were sent to the Sassoon Hospital in Pune for autopsies.

Cracking the whip, the Khed Police launched a manhunt for Das and apprehended him from his hideout in a shady lodging house early in the day (December 26) as he was packing up and preparing to flee out of Maharashtra.

This morning the grieving families along with other relatives, staged a sit-in dharna outside the police station, demanding that the culprit should be given the noose, and refused to accept the bodies of the two little girls.

As per preliminary questioning, Das is understood to have confessed to the double crime and also admitted that he had to kill them to suppress the matter secretly and also prevent them from screaming or attracting attention.

Although the accused was arrested by the police, the girls’ relatives gathered at the Rajgurunagar police station, saying they would not take possession of the bodies till they got justice.

The brutal kidnap-rape-double murder has evoked strong reactions from Nationalist Congress Party (SP) Working President and MLA Rohit R. Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and Kishore Tiwari and local Congress leaders, who slammed the ruling Mahayuti for what they termed as ‘utter failure on the law-and-order front’.

Kolkata, Dec 26: Kolkata Police have denied permission to a doctors’ association seeking an extension of their protest in the R.G. Kar rape and murder case.

The protest has been going on to condemn the failure of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to present a charge sheet against Sandip Ghosh and Abhijit Mondal, who are accused of tampering with the evidence in the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Medical College and Hospital.

The sit-in protest at Doreena Crossing organised by the West Bengal Joint Platform of Doctors, an umbrella association of doctors practising in the state, is supposed to end in the evening.

A member of the doctor’s body said they forwarded a communique on Wednesday night to the city police for permission to extend the sit-in protest.

However, on Thursday, the city police replied to the doctors’ email communique claiming the inability to give permission on certain grounds.

“We are weighing legal options available to ensure the extension of the demonstration. Initially, the city police even denied granting permission for the ongoing sit-in demonstration which is scheduled to end this afternoon. However, later we got permission for the same from the Calcutta High Court,” said a representative of the umbrella doctors’ body.

On Wednesday, another doctors’ body namely West Bengal Doctors Forum had written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking the change the name of “Doreena Crossing”, a popular protest point in the city, to “Abhaya Crossing”.

The victim junior doctor of the R.G Kar is referred to as “Abhaya” since the legal system of the country bars revealing the identity of any rape or rape-and-murder victim.

Recently, a special court in Kolkata granted “default bail” to the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal as CBI failed to file the supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrests.

Both Ghosh and Mondal were accused of misleading the investigation and tampering with the evidence when the initial investigation was being carried out by Kolkata Police.

This week, a report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) surfaced, which has created doubts about the “scene of crime” in the rape and murder case.

On the morning of August 9, 2024, the body of the victim was spotted at the seminar hall within the hospital premises of R.G. Kar and Hospital, accordingly, first the Kolkata Police and then CBI carried out the investigation considering the seminar hall as the “scene of crime”.

However, a report that CFSL has submitted to the CBI agency clearly stated that there is no evident sign of scuffle within the seminar room, sources said.

In fact, the CFSL report strengthens the apprehension raised by the section of the medical fraternity in the state since the beginning that the actual “scene of crime” was someplace else and after the rape and murder, the body was shifted to the seminar hall to mislead the investigation.

Thane, Dec 26: A couple has been arrested in connection with the abduction, rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Maharashtra’s Thane district.

Coming barely after the Badlapur sexual assault on two nursery class girls in August, this is the second case that has sparked outrage with people demanding the noose for the alleged perpetrators – Vishal Gawli, 35 and his wife Sakshi Gawli, 25.

Vishal Gawli is accused of kidnapping the girl from near her home, where she was playing on Monday, taking her to his house, assaulting, raping, killing and then dumping her body near a cemetery in the neighbouring Bhiwandi town, some 8 kilometres away.

He was spotted purchasing liquor in a restaurant-cum-bar CCTV footage, and the Thane Police formed six teams to hunt him down, finally nabbing him on Wednesday (December 25) with the help of Buldhana Police.

A team of Kalyan Police which has registered the case, took custody of Vishal Gawli from Shegaon Police in Buldhana where his in-laws reside, while his wife Sakshi, who was said to be a party to the heinous crime, was nabbed from outside her house in Kalyan.

The Shegaon Police zeroed in on Vishal Gawli after he stepped out of a salon where he had gone to change his appearance by shaving off his beard.

They handed him over to the Kolsewadi Police Station in Kalyan town (Thane) on Thursday and is likely to be produced before a Kalyan Magistrate Court later in the day.

Initial probe reveals that he was a history-sheeter in sex crimes, facing three molestation cases involving two women and a minor girl, plus two assault cases, he was released on bail in a POCSO case lodged in August 2023 and had been married thrice, with Sakshi being his third wife.

As the matter assumed political overtones, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke to the Thane Superintendent of Police and directed that no efforts should be spared to ensure the death penalty for the accused – both now arrested.

Ruling ally Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde – in whose Lok Sabha constituency – the heinous crime took place, met the victim’s family and assured that the government would ensure that the accused is tried and hanged.

The incident attracted huge flak from the Opposition parties including Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, who said that Thane – the home district of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde – has become a hotbed of gruesome crimes against women and young girls.