A 13-year-old girl was abducted and molested by a 21-year-old man who took her to a village in Bhiwandi tehsil of Thane district in Maharashtra, police said on Sunday, adding the accused was arrested and the girl rescued.
The girl was abducted from Vishnu Nagar in Dombivali, also in Thane district, on September 20, following which a case was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a police release said.
Police traced the accused, Akshay Patil, to Kahler village in Bhiwandi. He was arrested in Thane. The girl was rescued from the village on September 23 and handed over to her parents.
Recently, a 15-year-old girl, also from Dombivali, was raped by 33 men over the last eight months.
Police have so far arrested 29 men and detained two minors while two others are still on run, an official said, adding police seized the autorickshaw which was used by the accused to transport the victim from one place to another.
