Thane: Police on Thursday morning brought here the main accused in the case of kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl after arresting him from Maharashtra’s Buldhana district, officials said.

Besides the prime accused, Vishal Gawli, the police have also arrested his wife and another person in connection with the kidnap and murder of the girl, whose body was found in a village near her hometown Kalyan in Thane district on Tuesday, they said.

Gawli, who was apprehended from Shegaon in Buldhana on Wednesday, was brought here at around 6 am on Thursday, a crime branch official told PTI.

After the due formalities, he was kept in a police lockup in Thane city, the official said, adding the accused will be produced at a court in Kalyan later in the day.

Gawli was nabbed by a police team from Shegaon while he was stepping out of a salon after shaving his beard in a bid to conceal his identity, as per officials.

His medical examination was conducted in Buldhana following which he was brought to Thane, an official said.

He is accused of kidnapping and murdering the 12-year-old girl from Kolsewadi locality in Kalyan, the police said.

The motive behind the murder was not clear yet, the police said, adding they have so far interrogated around 10 persons, including relatives and friends of the accused.

A police official earlier said they were waiting for the postmortem report and if rape is confirmed, other legal sections will be added to the case.

An autorickshaw used in the crime has also been seized by police, he said.

Gawli, a resident of Kolsewadi, already had some criminal cases, including property-related offences, registered against him, the police said.

His third wife Sakshi Gawli and another person were also arrested in connection with the crime, they said.

Sakshi Gawli, who works in a bank, was on Wednesday produced before a local magistrate who remanded her in police custody for two days.

The girl was allegedly kidnapped from Kolsewadi in Kalyan on Monday afternoon when she was playing outside her house. The body was found on Tuesday morning near Bhiwandi in Thane district.

Her parents lodged a missing person complaint at Kolsewadi police station in Kalyan on Monday evening after searching for her for several hours.

Police initially registered an FIR under section 137 (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and launched a search to trace the girl.

After the body was found, BNS section 103(1) (murder) was added to the case, police said. 

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