Two arrested in Nashik for minor girl’s murder

Nashik: The Nashik city police arrested a 19-year-old youth and his friend in connection with the murder of a 16-year-old girl, whose body was found dumped at an isolated spot in Sarole, under the Wadivarhe police station limits, on Friday at 1pm.The main suspect, Atharva Deshmukh, a native of Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana district, was arrested in the Dwarka area. His associate was picked up the same night from the college campus along Trimbak Road in Nashik, where they studied.The Wadivarhe police said that around 1pm on Friday, a person noticed the body of a girl with injury marks from sharp weapons on her neck. Assuming that someone killed the unidentified girl, the police registered a case of murder against an unidentified person under relevant sections of the BNS.Speaking to reporters, SP Balasaheb Patil said, "At the time when the body of the minor girl was discovered, there was no evidence related to the crime, and neither was the identity of the deceased girl known. Thus, to establish her identity, we sent messages across the state about the unknown girl.""During the course of the investigation, we came to know about a missing case registered at the Civil Line police station of Akola. Based on the same, the parents of the missing victim were contacted, and they were shown the photo of the girl who was found murdered. The parents confirmed that the body was of their daughter," said SP Patil.The girl's parents told the police that they suspected a particular youth who may have murdered their daughter. Based on the information from the murder victim's parents, the rural police and the Nashik city police traced the accused, who confessed to the murder."Deshmukh told the police the girl he killed was his friend. Since he doubted her character, he killed her in a car while bringing her to Nashik and dumped her body at Sarole. Some others helped him in the girl's murder, and one of them was also detained. We are checking if there were more people involvedr," said SP Patil.Deshmukh is a first-year degree student at a college on the outskirts of Nashik city. The murder victim was a Class XI student at a college in Akole and resided in a hostel in Akole.SP Patil said the parents of the murder accused and the murder victim were friends. The murder accused and the victim were allegedly in a relationship.Meanwhile, senior inspector Prakash Ahire, of the Satpur police station, said his team got the information that Atharva Desmukh had come to his friend's place at Jadhav Sankul in Satpur, and left after changing his clothes with bloodstains. Acting on the information, the police, through technical analysis, discovered that he was about to escape towards Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar by booking a cab from Dwarka.His associate in the crime, Sandeep Sanap, was then picked up from the campus of his college.