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Gardener held for raping 12-year-old in Mumbai
After committing the crime, he gave her a mobile phone as a gift to calm her down and to keep the matter a secret.
A 25-year-old gardener working at a housing society in Mulund was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl who resides in the building. After the incident, the accused gifted her a mobile phone while asking her to keep mum.
According to Navghar police, the incident took place on November 14 in the washroom built for servants on ground floor of the housing society. The accused had befriended the girl for over the past year, the police said.
When she came down to play in the garden, he took her to the washroom and raped her. After committing the crime, he gave her a mobile phone as a gift to calm her down and to keep the matter a secret.
On November 18, her mother found the mobile phone and when she asked her daughter about it, she lied saying it was her school friend’s. The mother then cross checked with the friend’s mother and found that her daughter had lied.
When she again confronted her daughter, the girl broke down and told her the truth. The mother immediately approached the Navghar police station and filed an FIR on November 23 for rape and under the POCSO Act. “Within two hours of registering the case we arrested the accused,” said senior police inspector Madhav More of Navghar police station. The accused was produced before a sessions court and remanded to police custody till November 30.
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