A day after he was arrested for allegedly killing his live-in girlfriend in an acid-cum-petrol attack, a Beed district court on Monday remanded the accused Avinash R. Rajure in police custody for eight days in connection with the ghastly incident.
Twenty-five-year-old Avinash, who had been arrested from Nanded town on Saturday, was produced before Beed district Court’s Joint Civil Judge Kadir A Sarvari, who sent the former to police custody till November 24.
Avinash had allegedly poured acid and petrol, set his girlfriend – identified as Savitra D. Ankulkar (22) on fire and left her abandoned in a bush along her roadside at Yellamb Ghat near
Beed town in Marathwada region in the small hours of Saturday.
After having battled for more than 15-long hours, the victim girl Savitra D. Ankulkar died on Sunday morning at the Beed Civil Hospital, where she had been rushed to by the police on Saturday.
The motive behind the ghastly murder has not been established yet. The police have recorded the statement of the victim before her death.
The investigations have revealed that Avinash set out on a motorbike along with Savita from Pune to Shelgaon late on Friday night, after promising her that he would take their native village of Shelgaon village in Nanded district for Diwali. The two had stayed as live-partners in Pune before the accused offered to take her home for Diwali.
However, the accused stopped the vehicle at an isolated place near Yellamb Ghat en route at around 4 am and attacked her with acid and petrol.
“First, the accused tried to strangle her. After she resisted the attempt, the accused threw acid from a bottle that he was carrying. She screamed for help. No help was forthcoming. The accused went further, removed petrol from his motorbike, doused her with it and set her on fire. Later, he pushed the burning victim girl into a ditch and fled the scene,” Investigating Officer from Neknur Police Station Laxman Kendre said.
According to the IO, a shepherd tending to his flock in the nearby field alerted the police at 2 pm on Saturday. “We reached the spot quickly and rushed the victim girl to the Beed Civil Hospital,” Kendre said.
The victim, who had sustained 50 per cent burns, succumbed to the wounds at the Beed district civil hospital on Sunday morning.