3 boys saw Nasrapur rape & murder suspect with victim in cowshed: Police

Pune: The district rural police on Monday video recorded statements of three boys, who saw the arrested daily wage worker, Bhimrao Kamble (65), with the three-year-old girl in the Nasrapur cowshed on May 1, hours before she was found dead there.A Pune Rural police team camping in Nasrapur for the minor girl's death and murder probe saw the boys, aged between 10 and 11 years, near the crime scene in the footage of CCTV cameras. When the police approached them, they narrated what they saw on May 1.According to the police, these three boys stay in the same alley where the deceased girl's grandmother resides. They were playing on a motorcycle parked near the residence of the girl's grandmother on May 1. Kamble allegedly abused them and shooed them away.The police said the boys kept lingering nearby and followed Kamble when she was taking the girl to the cowshed. They picked up stones and threw them at the roof of the cowshed. Kamble responded by throwing bricks and shouting at them. The boys then walked away, the police said.The Rural police have so far recorded statements of 32 witnesses in the minor girl's rape and murder case. "The boys' eyewitness testimony is likely to become crucial evidence in the trial," the police said.Cop custody extendedA city court on Tuesday extended the police custody of Kamble till May 14. Public prosecutor Arundhati Brahme told TOI, "The investigating team submitted that they were trying to find out the shop where Kamble, a resident of Bhor, bought the apple seen in his hand in the CCTV footage. Also, the object used to cause injury on the girl's body is yet to be recovered.."Kamble was arrested in the evening of May 1 for allegedly raping and gagging the minor girl in the cowshed. He had taken the victim to the cowshed under the pretext of showing her a newborn calf.