13-year-old boy held for raping 3-year-old neighbour in Thane

A 13-year-old boy has been detained for allegedly raping his three-year-old neighbour while watching a pornographic clip on his mobile phone in Maharashtra’s Thane, police have said.

The boy was detained on Monday soon after the girl’s mother reported the crime to the police and he was sent to a remand home on Wednesday, officials said.

Inspector Vaibhav Shingare of the Kashimira police station said the girl was with her grandmother in the apartment opposite the boy’s as her mother had gone out to buy fruits.

Police said the Class 8 student asked the child’s grandmother if he could watch her, took her to his house and then sexually assaulted her. Just as the child started crying, her mother returned and started knocking on the boy’s flat.

He opened the door and the mother realised her daughter had been raped, police added. The boy was alone at home as his mother had stepped out to drop his sibling off to a class.

“We registered a case under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012,” Shingare said, adding that the police were waiting for the medical report of the girl.