Five days after the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl and robbery on a highway in Daund taluka of Maharashtra's Pune district, police on Saturday arrested two men in connection with the case, an official said.
The duo was apprehended from Pune district, he said.
The shocking incident had occurred in the wee hours of Monday on the highway near Bhigwan in Daund when a group of people was travelling in a car to the temple town of Pandharpur in neighbouring Solapur district, the police have said.
"We have arrested two robbers in connection with the case," an official of Pune rural police said.
Teen was sexually assaulted
The teenage girl was sexually assaulted and three women were robbed of gold ornaments by the two motorbike-borne persons, according to the police.
A case was filed at the Daund police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The police said, as the driver of the car felt sleepy, he halted it near a tea stall on the highway around 4.15 am. When he stepped out to answer nature's call, two unidentified men approached the vehicle and threatened the occupants with sharp weapons and robbed gold jewellery. One of the accused then took the girl out of the car and sexually assaulted her.
The duo then fled the spot on their motorcycle, after which the traumatised car occupants approached a nearby petrol pump and alerted the staff there, who in turn informed the police.
During the probe, the police found that the accused had thrown red chilli powder into the car occupants' eyes to impair their vision before committing the robbery and sexual assault. The investigators had released the sketch of one of the two accused.
