2 min readPuneUpdated: May 11, 2026 09:39 PM IST
Senior lawyer Ajay Misar has been appointed as a special public prosecutor (SPP) in the case of the murder and rape of a three-year-old girl allegedly committed by a 65-year-old man at a village in Pune district.
In addition, advocate Suresh Gaikwad has been appointed as an assistant to the SPP in this case. A notification in this regard was issued by the state government’s law and judiciary department on May 7.
Native to Nashik, advocate Misar is the district government pleader (DGP) since 2016. He is also the SPP in the sensational Swargate bus rape case of February 25, 2025, in Pune city. Misar has handled several serious cases including those related to terrorism in the past.
He will now appear as SPP in the minor’s rape and murder case that had sparked a massive outrage.
According to the police, the victim girl in this case was residing with her parents and sister in Pune city, but was currently staying at her grandmother’s house at a village in Pune district.
On the afternoon of May 1, while she was playing near a local temple, the 65 year old accused, having a previous criminal record, allegedly lured her and took her to a cowshed. He allegedly raped the girl, and then killed with “a hard and blunt death”, and then dumped her dead body in cow dung at the spot, police said.
When the girl failed to return home, her family and locals started searching for her. CCTV footage revealed that the accused had taken the girl with him around 3.15 pm. Soon, the girl’s body was found in the cowshed, and the accused was caught.
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The Pune rural police arrested the accused, after the victim girl’s mother lodged a first information report (FIR) against him, under sections 137 (2), 103, 64, 74, 140 (1), 140 (3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 4, 3, 8, 12 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) A court has remanded the accused to police custody till May 12.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
