Thane: A Special POCSO Court in Kalyan town granted Vishal Gawli and his wife Sakshi Gawli to police custody for a week till January 2 in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl who was reported missing since Monday, officials said here on Thursday.
Thane district was rocked by a sensational sex crime perpetrated on the girl, who had stepped out of her home to buy some provisions but then went ‘missing’ till her body was found on December 25 (Wednesday).
Coming nearly five months after the Badlapur sexual assault on two nursery class girls in August, this is the second case that has sparked outrage with people demanding the death penalty for the alleged perpetrators — Vishal Gawli, 35, and his wife Sakshi Gawli, 25.
Vishal Gawli is accused of kidnapping the girl from near her home, forcibly taking her in an autorickshaw to his house, assaulting, raping, killing and then dumping her body near a cemetery in the neighbouring Bhiwandi town, nearly 8 km away.
As the girl failed to return home for several hours, the family had lodged a missing complaint and a probe had started on Monday night, with the needle of suspicion pointing at the Gawli couple after the girl’s body was found.
The Thane Police formed six teams to hunt him down, but Vishal Gawli had already fled to Shegaon in Buldhana district, where his in-laws reside. (IANS)
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