Aurangabad: In a major breakthrough, Aurangabad rural police cracked the murder case of a 16-year-old girl within 48 hours of the incident coming to light. Three suspects were arrested and a minor detained on Tuesday.The suspects have confessed to have killed the girl after she strongly objected to their demand for sexual favours, police said.The body of Seema Ramdas Rathod, a resident of Soyegaon village and a standard X student, was found with her head smashed in the bushes of Ghatnandra ghat, 25 km away from her village, on Saturday. Police succeeded in identifying the girl on Sunday.Police said that one of the arrested suspects, Mushtaq Mehmud Shaikh (21), was a close friend of the girl and would often speak and spend time with her. The other suspects are Dnyaneshwar Janusingh Rathod (20), Bhurya Lalchand Rathod (20) and their 17-year old friend, all residents of Soyegaon.Police seized the SUV used by the suspects to carry the girl's body and throw at the Ghatnandra ghat of Soygaon tehsil of the district, about 120 km from here.The suspects were charged under various sections of IPC, including 302 (murder), 366A (abduction of a minor girl), section 201 (destruction of evidence) and section 34 (common intention)."Seema was last spotted around 5 pm on Friday, when she left home saying that she was going to the village well to fetch water. As per the confession of the suspects, soon after the girl reached the village well, Shaikh, the key accused took her to a room at his farm nearby," said Aurangabad rural superintendent of police Arti Singh"Shaikh was acquainted with the girl. After taking her to the room in the farm, he sought sexual favours from her in the presence of the other suspects. The girl strongly objected to the demand and threatened him with informing the villagers and her family members about it and tried to get out of the room," said Singh."The threat by the girl terrified the suspects, following which one of them hit her with a wooden plank, while the other banged her head on the floor," said the officer.The suspects then allegedly strangulated the girl with her dupatta, killing her on spot. They allegedly hatched a plan to dispose of the body and around 1.30 am on Saturday, the took the body in the SUV to Ghatnandra and threw it into the valley.The girl's body, however, got stuck in the bushes and spotted on Saturday evening by some commuters who informed the police.Police sources said that had the body not got caught in the bushes and fallen into the valley, it would have become very difficult to crack the case.

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