Traffic movement on the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway in Pune district was thrown into chaos on Saturday after hundreds of residents staged a protest over the brutal rape and murder of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl from Nasrapur village in Bhor taluka. Authorities confirmed the arrest of a 65-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting and killing the child inside a cowshed. The victim’s relatives, along with local protestors, carried out a sit-in demonstration near Navale Bridge and placed the girl’s body on the road while demanding the harshest possible punishment for the accused. The protest soon drew massive public attention and disrupted vehicular movement for several hours.
Although the agitation initially remained peaceful, tensions rose when demonstrators attempted to block the busy Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway completely. The road blockade led to severe traffic congestion, with long queues of stranded vehicles stretching across the route. Videos circulating on social media showed motorists trapped for hours as police struggled to clear the traffic. In response to the worsening situation, Pune Traffic Police issued an advisory asking commuters to avoid the Wadgaon Bridge section and use alternative routes until normal traffic resumed. After prolonged discussions and security deployment, police officials eventually removed protestors from the highway and restored movement on the express corridor.
Later in the night, under heavy police protection, the final rites of the young victim were conducted at Pune’s Vaikunt crematorium shortly after midnight. According to reports, the child had gone missing earlier in the afternoon, prompting her grandparents to begin searching for her around 3 pm. When they failed to locate the girl, they alerted local residents and approached Rajgad police station in Bhor taluka to register a missing complaint. Villagers immediately launched a search operation in the area and started examining CCTV camera footage in an attempt to trace the child’s movements before she disappeared from the locality.
During the search, villagers reportedly noticed CCTV footage showing a 65-year-old man entering a cowshed with the child. Suspicion quickly grew against the accused, and locals tracked him down near a riverside before allegedly assaulting him in anger over the incident. Police teams also reviewed the footage and rushed to the cowshed identified in the recording. There, officers discovered the girl’s body in a horrifying condition, with severe head injuries and her body allegedly covered with cow dung. The shocking crime sparked outrage across Pune district, with residents demanding immediate justice and stricter punishment for crimes against children.