27 June,2011 06:39 AM IST | | Akela
After parents of the 9-year-old victim, whose body was found in a speaker box, alerted the cops, the accused was nabbed while attempting to flee the city
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The Vartak Nagar Police made a major breakthrough in the shocking rape and murder case of a nine-year-old girl, nabbing a family friend who was close to the family.
Dasharath Ganpat Yadav (27), the arrested accused, was caught in the nick of time, while making a beeline for Punjab.
A worker places the speaker containing the girl's decomposing body in an ambulance
The crime was discovered on the evening of June 25. The victim's father, Nakhdu Ramdutta Yadav, hinted that he was suspecting a friend Dasharath, who had mysteriously gone under the radar.
Informers tipped off the police of Dasharath's attempt to flee to Punjab. When his mobile location indicated that he was at Bandra station, cops panned out to ensnare him.
During interrogation, Dasharath confessed that he had lured the girl to his residence and violated her, thereafter strangling her to conceal the crime.
Dasharath, a crane mechanic, hails from a village in Azamgarh, and had earlier been Nakhdu's roommate in Mumbai.
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He had vacated the lodgings when Nakhdu was joined by his wife and daughter.u00a0 He visited the family frequently, and had even accompanied the victim's parents to the police station when their daughter went missing.
Background
Thane Commissioner of Police K P Raghuvanshi said, "On June 25 at about 7 pm, an Air Force officer made a call to the Vartak Nagar police, reporting that a speaker box, lying near the gate of the Yeoor forest was emitting a stench. On opening the box, we found the body of a girl."
