Girl from Thane raped, killed in Shirdi; 1 held

Thane: A 21-year-old girl from Sahapur area here was allegedly taken to Shirdi by three persons where she was raped and then killed following which police on Tuesday arrested one of the accused.

The victim, hailing from Hadavali village in Sahapur, was on May 1 taken to the pilgrim town of Shirdi on some pretext by the three accused - Gorakh Dasade (19), Rahul Dasade and an unidentified woman, Sahapur police station inspector M B Sakale said. She was allegedly raped there between May 1 and 3 and later killed, inspector said adding that subsequently the body was brought by the accused to Sahapur and dumped in the river basin.

The victim's body, bearing head injury, was found by locals near Sapgaon village in the river on May 3 who then informed the police. Subsequently, police made enquiries in the nearby areas to identify her. Later, the body was identified by the girl's brother who then filed a complaint against the three accused based on which police registered an FIR in the matter.

One of the accused, Gorakh, was arrested this morning in Sahapur and his interrogation was underway, officer said. Offences have been registered against the accused under sections 302 (murder), 376-A (rape), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 420 (cheating) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC against the three accused, he said.

The body has been sent for postmortem. A hunt is on to nab the other two accused, the police officer said, adding that further details in the case would ascertained after a thorough probe.