Eight-year-old murdered in Palghar; hunt on for culprit
(Sourced from PTI)
An eight-year-old tribal girl was hacked to death allegedly by a man believed to be her relative in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said on Tuesday. The incident took place at 1:30 pm on Monday near a Zilla Parishad school in Dahanu taluka following which the 46-year-old accused ran away, an official from the district rural police control room said.
The official said that efforts were on to nab the accused. It was not yet known whether the child was sexually abused and what was the motive behind the killing, he said, adding that the postmortem report was awaited. The accused allegedly attacked the girl with a sickle, injuring her seriously, the official said.
"A passerby saw the child being attacked and tried to save her, but the accused hit him with the sickle as well, and then fled from the spot," he said. "After being alerted, police reached the spot and rushed the girl to a nearby hospital where doctors declared her brought dead," the official said. The body was subsequently sent for postmortem.
"The man who tried to save the girl was injured in the attack by the accused and was admitted to a hospital. The Dahanu police registered a case against the accused under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder)," he said.
Meanwhile, in another incident, a 35-year-old man killed his wife in Palghar's Virar area on Sunday. According to the Free Press Journal, the accused and his wife often used to quarrel over domestic issues. On Sunday, following a fight, the man, identified as Jagdeesh Gurav, stabbed his 28-year-old wife to death at their home and ran away. The victim died on the spot.
According to the Free Press Journal report, the body of the victim has been sent to post-mortem. As per the complaint filed by the relative of the victim, a case has been registered against the accused under IPC Section 302 (murder) at the Virar Police Station. Notably, Virar police said that efforts are underway to nab the accused.
