65-year-old arrested for raping, murdering one-year-old baby on Pune outskirts

The victim was the daughter of a migrant couple from Tamil Nadu who was sleeping with her parents on the roadside near Loni Kalbhor station.

A man was arrested in Loni Kalbhor on Friday for allegedly kidnapping, raping and murdering a one-year-old girl the previous night.

A placard during a protest march against rape in Gurgaon.(HT File Photo)

According to police, Malhari Bansode (65) abducted the minor while she was sleeping with her parents – a migrant couple from Tamil Nadu – on the side of a road near the Loni Kalbhor railway station. Her mother noticed that the girl was missing around midnight, after which a complaint was filed with the local police.

The girl’s body was found, its head brutally smashed, early on Friday. A medical examination revealed that she was sexually assaulted before being murdered.

“The abduction probe had turned into that of rape and murder. But we managed to identify the culprit with the help of footage from a CCTV camera installed nearby,” said senior police inspector Kranti Kumar Patil.

Bansode was arrested within four hours by a team of police officers led by additional superintendent of police Sandip Pakhale. He was charged under sections 4, 8 and (G) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, besides sections 366 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) and 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Police said that Bansode, an alcoholic, confessed to the crime during interrogation.