PUNE: A 16-year old girl from Beed was strangled to death by her 23-year-old fiance after she said she could not marry him because of her parents' poor economic condition The police said the girl, Rinku Naiknawre , belonged to Savargaon village of Beed district, around 150 km from here.She was engaged to the accused, Prashant Kharade, a farmer by profession, in December. Kharade also belongs to the same village.Beed superintendent of police G Sreedhar said the girl's parents are marginal farmers.Even as both families were in touch with each other to discuss the marriage preparations, the girl went missing on the morning of January 9.When her parents could not trace her, they lodged a complaint at the Majalgaon (rural) police station.The police, heeding Supreme Court guidelines, registered a case of kidnapping and launched a search for the girl.They recorded the statements of her family and friends.Additional superintendent of police Dikshitkumar Gedam said Kharade was called for questioning on two consecutive days. "We noticed his behaviour to be somewhat suspicious.He finally admitted to having met the girl on January 9," he said.Gedam said initially Kharade cooked up a story that he had gone out for lunch with the girl on the day . "He said the girl got him to stop on the highway and told him that she was not interested in marriage because of her parents' poor financial condition. He also said that the girl consumed rat poison which she was carrying and had rushed to the nearby forest area. He said he was rattled by the incident and returned home on his motorcycle," the officer said.Suspecting his version, the police arrested Kharade on January 11. During interrogation while in police custody , he confessed that he had gone with the girl for a long ride on the highway . "They stopped at Dharur ghat, where he told the girl that her parents were showing inability to arrange money for the marriage. At this, the girl told him that it would be better if they called off the marriage. In a fit of rage, Kharade strangled the girl and hanged her from a tree in the forest nearby ," Gedam said.

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