The owner of a Lonavala holiday resort has been arrested for allegedly sexually molesting a minor girl for over a year. Anil Vadgama, the managing director of Aron Resort, was arrested by the Pant Nagar police under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The matter surfaced on January 14, when the 17-year-old victim and her mother approached the police. As per the girl’s statement, Vadgama, 56, had been sexually harassing the victim and assaulted her from December 2022 to December 2023.
Victim's statement
In her witness statement, the teenager said that she often travelled to Pune and Lonavala with her mother, who has her own business of tours and travel. They stayed at Aron Resort during business trips, and Vadgama shared a friendly yet professional relationship with the victim’s parents.
The harassment started with Vadgama texting the victim. At first, the messages were friendly, but gradually turned obscene; he even sent porn videos to her and sought sexual favours. The girl rebuffed him but one day when her mother was attending meetings, he forced himself into her room and touched her inappropriately and threatened her. As her refusals continued in January this year, Vadgama allegedly turned violent, which led her to inform her parents.
FIR registered against Vadgama
On the day the FIR was registered against Vadgama, a team of four officers was formed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone 7) Purushattam Karad, managed by senior police inspector Rajesh Kevale.
“Considering it’s a POCSO case, we made no delay in sending our team. He was arrested from his house and presented before a court that remanded him to police custody till Thursday,” said Kevale.
During interrogation, it was revealed that Vadgama has at least 10 criminal cases against him in Lonavala, Pune and some at Sahar police station related to land grabbing, cheating and fraud-related offences. Given his influence, he managed to get out on bail or escape arrests in several cases, confirmed police sources.
In the present case, Vadgama has been charged with sections 354 (assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 (d) (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 8 (sexual assault) and 12 (sexual harassment) of the POCSO Act and section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
