The Thane Rural police have arrested a 30-year-old woman and her brother-in-law for allegedly killing a nine-year-old girl and dumping her body in Kasara Ghat this month. The woman and her husband, who is on the run, allegedly mistreated and assaulted the girl, who was the husband’s relative, and ended up killing her in a fit of rage because she wet her pants, the police said.
Mother files complaint
According to the Thane Rural police, the deceased has been identified as Bharti Chavan, a resident of Aurangabad. On December 4, Bharti’s mother Hina registered a complaint with the Uttan police against her brother-in-law Prakash Rathod. Hina said Mr. Rathod took Bharti to Uttan six months ago and promised to provide her with better education. However, for nearly a month Hina could not contact Mr. Rathod and found him missing when she visited his residence.
The police also tried locating Mr. Rathod, but registered a case of kidnapping when they failed to find him or Bharti. “Using a combination of human and technical intelligence, we traced Mr. Rathod’s wife Anita to Chalisgaon in Jalgaon. We learnt that her brother-in-law, Akash Chavan, had been missing since the last week of November. This seemed suspicious to us and we traced him to Pune. We then brought him to Uttan for questioning,” an officer with the Uttan police said.
13_BM_Minor killed
The police said Ms. Rathod and Mr. Chavan admitted to the crime during their interrogation. The officer said, “Ms. Rathod told us that her husband never had any intention of educating Bharti and made her do all the housework instead. He would also hit her at the slightest mistake and mistreat her. She said Bharti was not accustomed to using a western toilet as she came from a rural background and ended up soiling their commode. This would anger the Rathods and they would starve her or make her eat chillies to cause constipation.”
On November 7, Bharti, who had grown scared of using the toilet, wet her pants and a furious Mr. Rathod assaulted her severely. He allegedly proceeded to clamp his hand over her mouth and watched her struggle to breathe till she dropped dead, the officer said.
Body placed in barrel
The Rathods then placed Bharti’s body in a large plastic barrel and filled it with sand to contain the smell of the decomposing body. Ms. Rathod later got in touch with Mr. Chavan and sought his help to dispose of the body. Mr. Chavan arranged for a tempo, took the barrel to Kasara and threw it off Kasara Ghat on November 12.
Ms. Rathod and Mr. Chavan were arrested on Tuesday and Bharti’s body was recovered on Wednesday from the spot specified by Mr. Chavan. Both the accused been charged with murder and destruction of evidence, and have been remanded in police custody till Monday. Efforts are on to trace and apprehend Mr. Rathod, the police said.
