PUNE, May 3 -- Public outrage gripped Nasrapur village, in Bhor taluka, on Friday following the brutal assault and murder of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl, with protests intensifying in the village and spilling onto the Pune-Satara highway. The protest, which began as a peaceful sit-in, escalated when demonstrators attempted to block the busy highway, leading to major traffic disruptions. On Friday, at around 3 pm, grandparents of the three-and-a-half year old girl in Nasrapur village set about looking for her as she had been missing for a few hours. As their hunt was futile, they alerted locals and registered a complaint at the Rajgadh police station in Bhor taluka, about the missing child. The villagers scanned the CCTV footage that showed a 65-year-old man entering a cow shed with the girl. They tracked him down and beat him up; while on the other hand, following the footage, police tracked down the body of the child at around 7:30 pm with her head smashed and covered with dung in the shed. A search operation led police to the 65-year-old by a river side as he was being beaten up by a group of villagers. He was arrested. An investigating officer of Pune Rural police said: "The man, a labourer, confessed that he had lured the child into the cattle shed on the pretext of showing her a calf, where he sexually assaulted and killed her. " Sandeep Singh Gill, superintendent of police, Pune Rural, told HT: "The tragic incident occurred on Friday in Nasrapur, where a three-and-a-half-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and murdered. The accused was arrested within one-and-a-half hours, and a case has been registered at Rajgad PS. Investigation is on." Police suspect that after the sexual assault, the accused allegedly killed her by hitting her face with a stone, and to conceal the evidence, hid the body under a heap of dung. Rajgad Police Station has filed a case under sections 137(2), 103,64,74, 140 (a), 140(c) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhiat (BNS) and sections 4,6,8, 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. A sessions court in Pune remanded the accused to police custody till May 7. According to Gill, the accused has previous cases of molestation registered under the POCSO Act in 1998 and 2015; he was acquitted in a case in 2019. "He is an elderly man with a similar pattern of behaviour. The victim is from Pune and had come to visit her grandmother to the village on a summer vacation. As the village is sparsely populated, police are investigating how the accused lured the child while she was playing," said Gill. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also heads the home department, said on Saturday that the state government will demand capital punishment against the accused. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, he said: "The case will be taken up in by a fast-track court." "I would like to request the high court to give us a special public prosecutor; we will demand capital punishment in the court," said Fadnavis. Fadnavis also highlighted the Shakti Bill, passed by the state legislature in 2020 and sent to the Centre for presidential assent. The Maharashtra legislative council in March 2026 unanimously passed the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill 2026 to include provisions in the Shakti Bill to protect the identities of acid attack victims and ensure jail terms for online sexual overtures. NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule urged restraint, assuring "the strictest action" in the alleged sexual assault and murder case. Deputy CM and Pune guardian minister Sunetra Pawar met the victim's family, promising strict action and a fast-track trial. Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal, called the case a blot on the state and evidence of a "complete breakdown of law and order," with criminals no longer fearing enforcement....