A 15-year-old girl was allegedly strangled to death by her step-father, an autorickshaw driver, during a domestic fight between him and her mother at their house in Dapodi, Pune on Thursday afternoon.
Based on the doctor’s opinion, the police have also invoked sections of rape against the man. The police have formed 8-10 teams to look for the accused man who has been on the run since Thursday.
The cause of death was found to be “asphyxia due to smothering”, according to the officials of Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri. The girl, a class 8 student, was found with injuries on her nose and mouth suspected to have been caused by being hit hard on the face.
“They used to have constant fights, as per our information. He was the father figure in the house, but used to hit the girls and the complainant. He used to beat the girls over suspicion of having affairs with men,” said senior police inspector Shankar Awtade of Bhosari police station.
The couple had been married and living together with the girls since 2007. The girls’ father had a speech and hearing impairment and was accepting of the complainant’s marriage with the accused man. They all lived together until last year when the former husband died, according to the police.
On Thursday morning, the 40-year-old mother of the girls, a domestic help, had warned her husband not to go near her daughters, according to her complaint. Whether she meant it in the context of sexual assault or physical assault could not be ascertained.
The 44-year-old man left home after a fight with the complainant in the morning around 8:15am and allegedly returned at 4pm when the teenager was alone at home. While the complainant was at work, her elder daughter, who is in Class 12, was in school.
“When the elder daughter came home, she could not open the door so she called her mother. They both forced the door open and found the girl on the floor,” said senior PI Awtade.
The man allegedly hit the teenager in the face before strangling her to death, according to the complaint.
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