Auto-driver held from Pune for kidnapping, raping minor girl
The incident took place on March 23. The girl boarded the auto at Mahape MIDC after her office hours.
A 30-year-old autorickshaw driver, who allegedly kidnapped and raped a 16-year-old girl in the MIDC area of Mahape, around seven months ago, was arrested from Pune on Friday.
The incident took place on March 23. The girl boarded the auto at Mahape MIDC after her office hours.
Mamta D’souza, senior inspector of Rabale MIDC police station, said, “The minor is an orphan and lives with her grandmother at Digha. After completing SSC, she started working in a company at Mahape MIDC. The accused had dropped her at home in his auto a day before the incident. So, he knew her office timing and reached her office gate to take her the next evening.”
“He took her to a forest and raped her. While going towards Digha, he took a U-turn and headed in a different direction with her seated behind. The minor then jumped out of his auto. She remembered the registration number of the auto and gave that to us,” she said.
Autorickshaw driver Satyajit alias Satish Dilpak fled after the incident.
She suffered injuries and fell unconscious. Passers-by, who saw her lying on the road, took her to a doctor assuming it to be an accident. After gaining consciousness, the minor narrated the incident to the police.
A case under sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, was registered against the accused. The police had been searching for him since then.
After the crime, the accused was hiding with his pregnant wife and two children for almost three months. His wife delivered a baby girl and he kept her at his sister’s place at Hadapsar in Pune.
“On Thursday night, we had received a tip-off that he had come to meet his wife and children at the sister’s house. We alerted the local police and with their help, we arrested the accused on Friday morning,” another police officer said.
The police said the accused is a native of Osmasabad and he stayed in a rented house at Kopar Khairane. “We are trying to find out where he was for so many months after committing the crime. Prima facie, it appears that he and his pregnant wife would beg on streets for survival. We are yet to ascertain that.”
The accused was produced before the judicial court on Saturday and has been remanded in police custody till November 11. He has criminal records too. The Pune police have two cases of robbery and molestation against him.
