Released from jail, man rapes, kills minor girl

Sunil Suresh alias Pappu Salve was arrested yesterday for allegedly kidnapping a nine-year-old girl from Shirdi town of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra on December 28 last year following which he raped her and then killed her.

Salve was arrested yesterday near Manmad railway station in Nashik district by Shirdi police. He was later produced in Rahata local court which remanded him to police custody till January 17, police said.

Earlier, Salve was arrested in 2003 for raping and murdering a minor girl in Sinnar area of Nashik district.

Later, Nashik Sessions Court had awarded death sentence to him in the case. But he had appealed in the Bombay High Court against the sentence and was acquitted in the case, police sources said.

However, he was serving two jail terms - ten-year and seven-year rigorous imprisonment each - for cases of rape and murder against him lodged in Ambad and Nashik police stations in 2002, police said.

On account of his good behaviour, he was released from the Nashik road jail on May 28, 2012.

After release from jail, Salve kidnapped the nine-year-old girl from Shirdi and allegedly raped and murdered her on December 28, 2012.

He then threw the victim's body at an isolated place near Shirdi railway station.

The decomposed body was recovered on Friday night, police said.

Additional Superintendent of Police Sunita Thakare had yesterday said that a rape and murder case against Suresh will be tried by a fast-track court.

Enraged over the incident, people in Shirdi took out a protest march yesterday and demanded stern punishment for Salve.