Mumbai: Just two days after two men in their early 20’s were arrested on alleged charges of gang raping a 15-year-old in Palghar district, another 29-year-old was apprehended by the central crime branch unit (CCU) attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police for raping a minor girl for nearly four months on the pretext of marriage.
According to the police the accused who has been identified as-Dhirajkumar Balkrishna Laddha (29) trapped the 17-year-old girl into a love affair and repeatedly raped her between January to April by promising to marry her after she turned 18. However, when the girl refused to continue with the physical relationship, the accused assaulted the girl and her mother. An offence under the relevant sections of the IPC for rape and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act-2012 was registered against Laddha by the girls mother at the Arnala coastal police station in Virar on 7, May.
Sensing the seriousness of the offence, personnel from the CCU were roped in to nab the culprit at the earliest. A team led by API-Dattatray Sarak under the supervision of police inspector-Rahul Raakh and DCP (crime) Avinash Ambure collected information about the accused and on the virtue of electronic surveillance apprehended him from Kondhwa district in Pune within 24 hours after the offence was registered. While the accused who is a resident of Tilak Nagar area in Pune has confessed to his crime, police said, his custody has been handed over to the Arnala coastal police who are conducting further investigations.
