Mumbai : The Wadala TT police on Thursday arrested a 32-year-old artisan in connection with the rape of a five-year-old girl at a dumping ground in Sangam Nagar, Wadala last week.
The girl was kidnapped by an unidentified man from near her house in Vijay Nagar on April 21 and taken to an isolated ground where she was raped. The girl was found bleeding near the dumping ground by locals who informed the police.
The police narrowed down to the arrested accused, Mohammed Riyaz Ansari, as the prime suspect after they detained 14 workers from a local garment factory for questioning. “The mother of the victim worked in the same factory as the accused. She would often take her daughter to the factory. The accused would often play with her. It became easy for Ansari to kidnap the girl as she knew him,” said a police official associated with the Wadala TT police station.
The case shot to prominence after the officials of the Antop Hill and Wadala TT police stations displayed irresponsible and insensitive behaviour while handling the case when it came to light on April 21.
Assistant Police Inspector (API) Sanjeev Nimbalkar of the Antop Hill police and Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Anand Jhavre of the Wadala TT police station have been suspended for wasting over four hours arguing over jurisdictional duties while the bleeding girl was left waiting.
“When the case was registered, we had prepared a sketch on the basis of the CCTV footages that had captured the man carrying the victim. A team of 100 constables were deployed to take the sketch and clippings of the CCTV footage from house to house to help identify the rapist. A lot of locals and informants had identified Ansari as the man in the sketch. His body language too matched that of the man in the CCTV footages,” said Ashok Dudhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone IV.
