Nashik : Nandgaon police are investigating a possible link between the kidnapping of an eight-month-old girl and the death of a 60-year-old priest found hanging from a tree on Saturday. Police had questioned the priest twice on Friday after a sniffer dog led them to his shanty.
As per the complaint, around 11.30 pm, the mother woke up and found the baby missing. Police questioned the 60-year-old priest twice on Friday as part of the investigation. However, around 7.30am on Saturday, villagers found him hanging from a tree in a nearby jungle.
The family searched the area before alerting Nandgaon police. Police have begun a separate probe into his death while continuing the search for the child. Police teams are continuing search operations to trace the infant and are investigating whether the priest’s death has any connection with her disappearance.
The infant, missing since Thursday night, remained untraced on Saturday.
The family had dinner and went to sleep around 8 pm on Thursday, according to her father’s complaint. The priest lived around 200 feet away.
Investigators said the spot from which the infant disappeared is relatively isolated. The girl belongs to a family of daily-wage workers. The infant slept between the parents on a bed outside their shanty. The couple’s four other children, two boys and two girls, were sleeping nearby. Only three dwellings are there: the family’s shanty, a relative’s house, and an unoccupied structure.