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Out to buy Tricolour for Independence Day, 12-year-old raped in Chandigarh forest
Acting swiftly after a complaint by the child’s mother, Chandigarh Police on Tuesday arrested the accused, who is a neighbour of the family
A 12-year-old girl, who had ventured out on Monday to buy a national flag ahead of Independence Day, was kidnapped and raped by a 28-year-old man in the forest area of Khudda Lahora, police said.
Acting swiftly after a complaint by the child’s mother, police on Tuesday arrested the accused, who is a neighbour of the family.
The woman, a domestic help, complained to police that her 12-year-old daughter, who is a student of Class 7 at a government school in the city, wished to buy a flag to celebrate Independence Day and took ₹100 from her on Monday.
But she didn’t return from the market for an unusually long time. Worried, she launched a search for her and on reaching the forest area, found her with a man, who escaped after spotting her.
Her daughter revealed that while she was on her way to buy a flag, the accused forcibly snatched her money and took her with him. After buying a liquor bottle for ₹50, he returned the rest to her, before taking her to the forest, where he raped her.
Police have booked the accused under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) and 376-AB (raping a woman under 12 years of age) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
He was produced before a court and sent to 14-day judicial custody.
No city for children
August 12: Police arrested two men, a BTech graduate and a lab technician, for gang-raping two Class 9 students of a government school in Chandigarh
August 9: A 30-year-old-man was arrested for raping the eight-year-old niece of his wife. He was later also booked for raping the girl’s elder sister, aged 14
August 7: Police arrested a 17-year-old boy for raping a 10-year-old girl in the forest area of Maloya
July 29: Two 19-year-old youths were nabbed for raping and impregnating two minor girls in separate cases
May 18: A Class 7 student of a government school in the city was gang-raped by her five schoolmates. All five juveniles were apprehended.
