25-year-old held for kidnapping, forcing 14-year-old Noida girl into prostitution

The suspect, Pawan Kumar, who is a daily wage labourer, spotted the girl playing outside her house in Sector 66 on November 2, 2021, said police officers. In her statement in court, the girl said she was lured by the man and taken to Rishikesh in Uttrakhand, where she was forced into prostitution

A 25-year-old man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from Noida and forcing her into prostitution in 2021.

HT Image

The suspect, Pawan Kumar, who is a daily wage labourer, spotted the girl playing outside her house in Sector 66 on November 2, 2021, said police officers. In her statement in court, the girl said she was lured by the man and taken to Rishikesh in Uttrakhand, where she was forced into prostitution.Pawan and another suspect, Reema, were both known to the girl as they lived in the same colony. They told the girl that they are going to Uttarakhand and will come back in two days, after which the girl also decided to go with them without telling her parents.

She was taken to Rishikesh in a private bus.

“The girl’s family reported her missing on November 2. A First Information Report was registered under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and teams were deployed to find her. She was recovered a week later in Noida,” said Vijay Kumar, station house officer of Phase-3 Police Station.

“Following her statement, section 370 (imports, exports, removes, buys, sells or disposes of any person as a slave, or accepts, receives or detains against his will any person as a slave) along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act were added to the FIR,” said Amit Singh, assistant commissioner of police-1 (central Noida).

Reema, the suspect’s accomplice, was arrested in April 2022 from Noida while Pawan remained on the run.

“On Thursday, with the help of technical and manual intelligence, our team managed to arrest the suspect from Noida. He was produced before court and remanded to judicial custody,” Singh said.