The Rabale police have solved the murder case of a three-year-old boy from Ghansoli by detaining his neighbour, a 17-year-old girl.
Omkar Shankar Sathe, who turned three on September 5, went missing around 12 p.m. on September 18 while playing outside his house in Balaram Wadi. His mother had stepped out to buy chicken, while his father, a painter, and his grandmother, a vegetable seller, were out on work. Omkar’s mother last spotted him playing on the ground floor, while his two sisters — aged six and nine — were playing on the first floor.
Police inspector Giridhar Gore said, “We suspected the girl, but since she was a juvenile, we needed a confession. We approached her in amicable ways with the help of a child psychologist and lawyers, and she confessed.” Mr. Gore said the girl told them that Omkar came to her house on the first floor to play and suddenly fell unconscious. She panicked, put him in a jute sack, and threw it behind the building from a window. Mr. Gore said, “We found a similar sack from her house. Her parents worked as labourers in a garment factory and were out for work when the incident occurred. She was alone at home, while her siblings were playing on the ground floor.”
The autopsy report had ruled out strangulation and head injuries as the cause of death. Mr. Gore said, “He died due to suffocation inside the sack.” The girl, a Class IX student, has been sent to a juvenile home on the charge of murder.
