Mumbai – Indradev Pandey
As many as four rape cases, including two involving minors, were registered by the Vasai-Virar police on Tuesday, raising a raft of questions over women’s safety in the western suburbs even as the Badlapur sexual assaults case remains in spotlight
The accused in all four cases were known to the victims, which enabled them to take undue advantage and lure/ blackmail the latter. Arrests have been made in only one of the four cases and efforts are on to trace the other accused, said police.
In the first case registered at Pelhar police station, a 35-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy were booked for allegedly raping a minor girl and filming a video of the act, based on a complaint by her father. Both the accused were neighbours of the victim, said police.
“The girl was playing outside her house at around 5pm on Tuesday when the accused lured her with chocolates. When she did not return home even after the passage of an hour, he went out to look for her and caught the accused in the act,” said a police officer.
The 14-year-old boy, who shot a video of the act, was detained by police on Wednesday while the main accused in absconding. Both have been booked under sections 65 (2) and 77 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant sections of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“We will produce the boy before the child welfare committee on Thursday,” said the police officer quoted earlier.
In the second case, the Achole police in Nalasopara arrested a dentist for allegedly raping a minor girl over the past four years.
“The doctor had volunteered to look after the girl following her parents’ death around four years ago. But he had been taking advantage of her innocence and raping her,” said an officer from Achole police station.
In the third case, the neighbour of a 22-year-old physically challenged woman was booked by the Nalasopara police for allegedly raping her and threatening to kill her and her husband.
“The accused, who is absconding, had taken ₹1.5 lakh from the woman’s account. He had also been pressuring her to stay with him in his village in Tamil Nadu,” said a police officer.
The accused has been booked under sections 376(2)(n), 376(2)(i), and 506 of the Indian Penal Code. He is absconding and efforts are on to trace and nab him, said police.
In the fourth case, the employer of a 32-year-old woman was booked by the Tulinj police in Nalasopara for allegedly raping her by promising to marry her.
The woman, who belongs to a backward community and lives in Badlapur, approached the police after the man refused to marry her citing differences in their caste background.
“We booked the accused under sections 376 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 based on the woman’s statement recorded by the Badlapur police,” said an officer from the Tulinj police station, where the case was transferred. Police are trying to trace and nab the accused, he added.
