Kidnapper who tried to lure minor girl in Deonar arrested

Around 1 pm on Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl was returning from school when a man on motorcycle approached her from behind and asked her to guide him to an address

Around 1 pm on Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl was returning from school when a man on motorcycle approached her from behind and asked her to guide him to an address.

Sandesh Tanaji Thorat HT Photo

The girl showed the man the way and kept walking when he offered her a ride to her home, saying he was going in that direction. She refused and continued walking when the man tried to force her to sit on his bike. The girl again refused and fastened her gait.

A team from the Nirbhaya pathak (squad) of Deonar police station and a few locals who saw the incident, asked the girl what he was saying to her, and whether she knew him.

After the girl said that he was a stranger, the locals and the officers intercepted the man and asked him about his identity and address. He gave his name as Sandesh Tanaji Thorat.

“Thorat, 32, told us that he used to stay in the locality 20 years ago and had come back to meet his friends. He also said that now he resides at Kamothe in Navi Mumbai,” Rajesh Kewale, senior police inspector of Deonar police station, said.

The officers took Thorat to the police station before informing the girl’s mother who was at Sion hospital visiting her ill father. Later, he was arrested.

Thorat was convicted for kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl from Navi Mumbai’s Kalamboli in 2008 and he came out on bail two months ago.

The girl’s mother said she could not pick up her daughter after school as she had to go to the hospital. “Had the police officers not intervened he could have kidnapped her.”

The police have charged Thorat under sections 354 (a) and 354 (d) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 8 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

“We are finding out how many more girls he has molested or kidnapped,” Kewale said.