The police said victim Franshela Vaz was very fond of accused Clarence Fonseca, who is the husband of her mother's sister. She would often visit his Mira Road residence and spend time with his children.
An eight-year-old girl from Airoli was kidnapped and murdered by her maternal uncle apparently to take revenge on the child's mother. The police have arrested the 38-year-old accused, a Mira Road resident and recovered the semi-decomposed the body of the girl.
The police said victim Franshela Vaz was very fond of accused Clarence Fonseca, who is the husband of her mother's sister. She would often visit his Mira Road residence and spend time with his children.
A standard III student of New Horizon High School, Franshela went missing in the evening of June 29, moments after her school bus dropped her at the main gate of Ekvira building, Sector 8, where the Vaz family resides. Her father works in merchant navy.
Nearly 70 cops fanned through the city to crack the case. The first breakthrough came after a 10-year-old boy told them that he had seen Franshela with a fat man. The next clue was a CCTV footage from Airoli toll booth which showed the girl in a car.
"My daughter was very shy and would often ask me to pick her up. However, after her brother was born two years ago, I could not devote much time to her. Also, I was being treated for brain tumour," said Franshela's mother Sharli Vaz.
Sharli said her husband had flown to Netherlands on June 20 to join his ship and had to return after their child went missing. According to Rabale police, the needle of suspicion pointed to Fonseca as he never took interest in the case.
Fonseca fate was sealed when cops tracked his movement through cell tower locations. He was found to be near Franshela's home on that day. "We arrested him on Thursday. Upon interrogation he admitted to the crime," said crime branch DCP Suresh Mengade.
According to victim's uncle Salvador Quadors, the Vaz family had to been to Fonseca's house sometime ago. A fight among kids turned into an argument between Sharli and Fonseca, who too is into merchant navy, with the former cursing him that he should die in the sea. Fonseca then decided to take revenge for the insult.
On that day, Fonseca met Franshela after she got down from school bus and told her that her mother was in Mira Road. On their way to Mira Road, he strangled her and dumped the body near Gaimukh on Ghodbunder Road. However, after reaching home, he realised that he had left his bag at the spot. Despite his wife informing him about Franshela, he rushed out, to recover his bag, by telling her that he had some urgent work. This was another clue that undid him.
An senior officer from Rabale police station said, "We suspect he might have raped the girl. We have sent the body for post-mortem and will soon get the report. There were no clothes on the girl's body and it was semi-decomposed."
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