Mumbai: 24-year-old man held for kidnapping, raping minor

The Wadala TT Police have arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly kidnapping and repeatedly raping a minor girl.

According to the police, the matter surfaced after the 17-year-old girl left home for college on March 28, and didn't return. She dropped a message to her parents saying she won't return home. Later, on April 4, the victim’s parents contacted the police and filed a missing complaint, but since she is a minor, charges of kidnapping were added to the first information report (FIR), said the police, who subsequently began an investigation to trace the girl.

During the course of the investigation, it was known that the victim was in touch with a man before she went missing. The police started to track him down and trace the girl’s mobile phone, but it was constantly switched off.

After obtaining the call data record of the suspect’s mobile, his first location was in Bhopal, then Rajasthan and Gujarat, said the police. The girl’s location showed somewhere in Mumbai.

“The location showed somewhere near the Nehru Science Center in Worli. We managed to arrest him and we found the victim’s phone too, which he had snatched away from her so she wouldn't make any attempts of calling her family,” said a police official. The accused was arrested on April 10.

The accused confessed to marrying the underage victim in Bhopal after taking her away from Mumbai. The girl told the police that she was kept in captivation in Bhopal by the accused, and was physically assaulted and raped by him throughout the time. Since the accused didn't have any money on him, he apparently also extorted money from the victim and even threatened her if she didn't make a way to arrange money for him, said the police.

A case has been registered against the accused under sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape), of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 (penetrative sexual assault), 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault), 8 (sexual assault) and 12 (sexual harassment of a child) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.