Thane horror: Uncle kills 3-year-old niece with ’playful slap’, confesses to burning body in cover-up attempt

A 38-year-old man from Thane has been arrested for allegedly killing his 3-year-old niece and trying to burn the body, newswire PTI reported on Friday, November 22.

The partially burnt body of the three-year-old child was discovered in the bushes near a police station on Thursday after it went missing on November 18.

The police arrested the child’s uncle upon technical inputs and human intelligence. According to police, the child fell and died after being slapped by her uncle. The three-year-old girl child was the daughter of acussed’s sister.

After slapping the girl, the accused set her body on fire to destroy it, the report said, citing senior inspector Anil Jagtap of the Hill Line police station.

The probe is still underway.

While confessing to the crime during interrogation, the accused stated that he did not intentionally try to kill the child. The incident occurred after he jokingly slapped her while playing, which led to her death, India Today reported.

The accused tried to destroy the body out of fear. On Wednesday, the accused, his wife and their rickshaw puller friend took the body of the child and hid it behind the bushes while people went out to vote for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the report said.

After the incident, the accused accompanied his sister to the police station to file a missing report of his niece. Additionally, the family shared pictures on social media, requesting people to share information regarding the missing child.

Upon lodging the complaint, the police started search operations for the missing body on Thursday. The rickshaw puller found the body; the police also took two men under custody over suspicion, it added.

“We have taken action to arrest the accused on the basis of technical analysis and the confession given by the accused. We will present the accused before the court and demand police custody. We are investigating further,” the report said, quoting Ulhasnagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Gore.