KOLKATA: Sanatan Thakur, the 62-year-old former homeguard who allegedly raped and killed a three-year-old girl in Purulia district of West Bengal by piercing seven needles in her organs, was nabbed in Pimpri village of Sonabhadra district of Uttar Pradesh.
Purulia district SP Joy Biswas told the New Indian Express, "Sanatan Thakur had disguised himself as a hermit at a small temple in Pimpri village of Sonabhadra. A Purulia police team nabbed him on Saturday and produced him in Robertsganj court in the same district, where we were granted transit remand. The accused would be brought to Purulia on Wednesday."
Cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO), 2012 and Section 304 (culpable homicide) of Indian Penal Code were filed against Thakur.
Initial police investigations revealed that the deceased's mother Mangala Goswami lived together with Thakur in the guise of a house maid and may have been an accomplice to Thakur's alleged crimes. While Goswami was arrested the day her daughter succumbed to injuries on July 21, Thakur remained absconding. She is now in police remand in Purulia.
Purulia SP Joy Biswas added that Thakur and Goswami would be interrogated by making them sit face to face on Wednesday.
The girl succumbed to her injuries two days after seven needles from her vagina, kidney and urinary bladder were removed in a Kolkata hospital. The needles inside her body and the rape came to light after Goswami brought her sick daughter to a government hospital in Bankura.