3-year-old girl dies in Maharashtra's Thane after uncle's ‘playful’ slap: Report

Thane: While playing with his niece at home on Monday, the man “playfully” slapped her, causing her to fall, hit her head, and die on the spot.

A three-year-old girl in Maharashtra's Thane died after her 38-year-old uncle allegedly “playfully” slapped her, India Today reported on Friday. To destroy evidence, the accused later attempted to burn her body.

The man initially hid the body and even accompanied his sister to the police station to file a missing person report for the child. (Representational image)

HT cannot independently verify this information.

The incident occurred in Thane's Ulhasnagar area. The child's mother filed a missing complaint on Monday. On Thursday, police recovered the partially burnt body from bushes near the Ulhasnagar Hill Line police station.

Here's what happened

According to the report, the man was playing with his niece at home on Monday when he “playfully” slapped her. The impact was so strong that the girl fell, hit her head, and died on the spot.

The man initially hid the body and even accompanied his sister to the police station to file a missing person report for the child. The family also posted her pictures on social media, urging people to share any information about her whereabouts.

On Wednesday, while most people were occupied with voting in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the accused, along with his wife and a rickshaw-puller friend, moved the body to nearby bushes and attempted to burn it.

On Thursday, the police began a search for the girl’s body, with the accused and his accomplices also joining the effort. The rickshaw puller was the one who located the body, but police grew suspicious and detained the two men for questioning. During interrogation, they admitted to burning the body but claimed they had no intention of killing the child.

The accused told the police that he hid the body in a panic and later attempted to dispose of it by burning it.

Ulhasnagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Gore told India Today, “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.”