Thane:
A Thane court on Thursday remanded the main accused in the case of kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl in police custody till January 2, 2025.
The prime accused, Vishal Gawli, was brought here in the morning and kept at the Naupada police station, after being nabbed in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district on Wednesday, officials said.
He was produced before the Kalyan District and Sessions Court where Judge V A Patrawale remanded him in police custody till January 2, Deputy Commissioner of Police Atul Zende said.
The police had also arrested his wife Sakshi Gawli and another person in connection with the kidnap and murder of the girl, whose body was found in a village near her hometown Kalyan in Thane district on Tuesday.
The Kalyan court on Thursday extended Sakshi Gawli’s police remand till January 2, police said.
Vishal Gawli allegedly kidnapped the girl with the help of his wife and killed the minor in Chakki Naka area of Kalyan, they said without elaborating how the victim was murdered.
The couple then took the body in an autorickshaw and dumped it at Bapgaon on Kalyan-Padgha road, as per police.
After the crime, Vishal was seen buying a bottle of liquor at Aadharwadi Chowk in Kalyan. To evade police, he fled to Buldhana from where he was nabbed on Wednesday, they said.
The motive behind the murder was not clear yet, the police said, adding they have so far interrogated around 10 persons, including relatives and friends of the accused.
He was brought here at around 6 am on Thursday, a crime branch official told PTI.
The accused was nabbed by a police team from Shegaon while he was stepping out of a salon after shaving his beard in a bid to conceal his identity, as per officials.
His medical examination was conducted in Buldhana following which he was brought to Thane, an official said.
A police official earlier said they were waiting for the postmortem report and if rape is confirmed, other legal sections will be added to the case.
The autorickshaw used in the crime has also been seized by police, he said.
Vishal Gawli, a resident of Kolsewadi, already had some criminal cases, including property-related offences, registered against him, the police said.
Sakshi Gawli, who worked in a bank, is his third wife.
The girl was allegedly kidnapped from Kolsewadi in Kalyan on Monday afternoon when she was playing outside her house. The body was found on Tuesday morning at Bapgaon near Bhiwandi in Thane district.
Her parents lodged a missing person complaint at Kolsewadi police station in Kalyan on Monday evening after searching for her for several hours.
Police initially registered an FIR under section 137 (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and launched a search to trace the girl.
After the body was found, BNS section 103(1) (murder) was added to the case, police said.ย
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
