The brutal rape and murder of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in Pune has sparked outrage with demands for harsher punishment against the accused, a 65-year-old laborer with a criminal history.
As chilling details of the violent assault emerged, the family of accused Bhimrao Kamble publicly disavowed it. His wife and son said he had been living apart since 2015, and that he should be sentenced to death, and even his body should not be handed over to the family.
Read also: ‘There is no moral right’: Who said what as resignations flood in after TMC poll surprise?
Kamble allegedly raped and murdered a three-and-a-half-year-old girl at Narsapur in Pur Tehsil in Maharashtra’s Pune district on May 1. According to police sources, autopsy results indicate that Campbell gagged the victim by stuffing socks or cloth into her mouth during the assault. Traces of injuries were also found on the child’s chest, indicating that he had been exposed to severe physical violence.
“As per the initial report, the death was due to suffocation,” a police official told HT earlier.
“Crush him to death”
Amid widespread outrage over the rape of the minor, he said he should be crushed to death in the same place where he killed that child. “He should be crushed to death in the same place where that child was killed,” his wife was quoted as saying by the Indian Express. She also told media that the family had severed ties with him more than a decade ago.
According to police, Campbell has a criminal background and was booked for sexual harassment in 1998 and 2015 and was later acquitted in both cases.
Read also: Ted Turner, founder of the leading American network CNN, has died at the age of 87
She said: “I will not attend his funeral, and no one should come to tell me that. We have not been in contact with him for 10 years. I don’t want to see his face. He should not only be hanged, he should be burned alive. However, that will not calm my angry soul.”
Campbell’s son was equally angry at the inhumane act committed by his “estranged” father as he said he was ashamed to call him his father. “He committed an inhumane act and deserves to be killed in the same way he killed that little boy.”
“That little girl was like my niece. She should get justice. I have 11 nieces and nephews. I feel great pain and shock,” he said, adding that the accused should be “severely punished.”
Government of Maharashtra constitutes SIT
As the incident sparked widespread outrage, the Maharashtra government formed a special investigation team to investigate the case.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday confirmed that the government will push for the death penalty to be imposed on the accused, and said that the state will expedite the trial to ensure justice in “record time.”
The accused allegedly lured the girl with the promise of food and took her to a livestock pen where he sexually assaulted her and later killed her, according to police.
Read also: Vijay’s path to power now passes through this political party after the support of Congress
He was later arrested and booked under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act.
Father’s call for justice
Meanwhile, the victim’s father sent an appeal to political leaders, demanding justice for his daughter.
The father, who said he was in Dehu to immerse his daughter’s remains, requested that no condolence visits be made to his home until justice is served and the death penalty is issued to the accused. “We are currently in Dehu to immerse my daughter’s ashes. During this time, my relatives and friends informed me that many politicians were visiting our house to offer condolences etc,” he said, according to news agency ANI.
“I want to make a humble request on behalf of my family and myself that until my daughter gets justice and the accused is sentenced to death, no politician should come to our house to meet us,” he added.
