3-year-old's rape, murder inquiry hits dead end

After false start, seven police teams and Crime Branch look for new clues to trace unknown drunk man who lured away Deepali Kasbe

Investigationsu00a0in the case of rape and murder of a three-year-old girl has hit a dead end with the Nigdi police grappling to find a clue about the identity of the drunken man who was seen leading away the child. Seven teams have been formed from four different police stations in Pimpri-Chinchwad to trace the suspect, while the Crime Branch is also simultaneously investigating the case. The victim, Deepali Raju Kasbe from Sangramnagar, had gone missing on May 15. She was found dead in an open space near Bhakti-Shakti chowk three days later, on May 18.

The post-mortem revealed she had been raped before the murder. Initial investigations had made the police suspect a distant relative, who reportedly was drunk and had taken Deepali to a shop to buy toffees. This, however, was found to be inaccurate as further investigations revealed that the suspected person was in Beed district at the time of the offence. Based on the account given by some eyewitnesses, who claimed to have seen the "short" suspect wearing tattered clothes and shoes, the Nigdi police have also prepared and released the sketch of the suspect.

"Deepali's case is a highly sensitive case for us. We are investigating it from all possible angles, including that of some insider involved in the crime," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Sudhir Chowgule. "But investigations into the relative input have so far not yielded any result. We don't have any strong leads yet, but we are working on all possibilities."

Chowgule said that besides the Crime Branch being on the job, seven teams had been formed from police personnel attached with four police stations, namely Bhosari, Pimpri, Nigdi and Chinchwad, to nab the suspect.
"Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan is directly supervising the case and we hope to solve it soon," said Chowgule.

The crime
Three-year-oldu00a0Deepali Raju Kasbe had gone missing while playing outside her house on May 15. A post-mortem was conducted after her body was found on May 18, and the report showed injuries on her private parts and throttling marks on the neck. The body was covered with a mattress and the child's face was completely smashed. The child's parents are daily wage labourers who live in Sangramnagar.