Officers of the Nagpada police station on Sunday detained a minor from Nallasopara for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl. The police zeroed in on the suspect after scouring CCTV footage from near the scene.
According to the police, the matter surfaced when a passerby found the girl sitting at a school compound and crying on Saturday evening. She was immediately taken to her family, who later approached the police.
As per the child’s statement, the suspect gagged her and took her to a secluded spot in the school compound. She also said he hit her before raping her. A rape case was registered against an unknown person by the girl’s father.
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“The place of crime was a secluded spot, and the incident happened late in the evening,” a police officer said. “We started by questioning locals around and also checked available CCTV footage from where we got images of the suspect.”
When the police reached his residence, the family had no idea where the suspect was. But police learnt about the extended family in several parts of the city. Teams were formed and deployed to all the possible family locations, starting from Nagpada and covering Bandra, Khar, Jogeshwari, Chembur and Nallasopara, where the suspect was finally located at a relative’s place.
The boy, 15, was nabbed early on Sunday and brought to the police station where he is said to have confessed. “The entire operation took over six hours, and locals contributed to the mission,” the officer said.
A case has been registered against the 15-year-old under sections 376AB (person committing an offence of rape on a woman under 12 years of age), 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 4 (punishment for committing penetrative sexual assault) and 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
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