Minor raped in Aarey Colony: CCTV footage leads police to autorickshaw driver

Based on the footage from the three CCTV cameras in the Andheri-Goregaon stretch, the police on Tuesday arrested the autorickshaw driver, Shivkumar Rana, who allegedly kidnapped a five-year-old girl from Sahar area and raped her at an isolated spot in Aarey Colony on March 1.

Based on the footage from the three CCTV cameras in the Andheri-Goregaon stretch, the police on Tuesday arrested the autorickshaw driver, Shivkumar Rana, who allegedly kidnapped a five-year-old girl from Sahar area and raped her at an isolated spot in Aarey Colony on March 1.

The Mumbai police, along with the crime branch, had formed 10 teams to track the accused. The footage from 10 spots on the stretch showed the autorickshaw had a yellow hood and the driver had stopped to buy alcohol at a shop on Military road and fill gas at the Sahar petrol pump, before driving down to the Aarey Colony. But the registration number of the vehicle was not clear because of the radium strip below the number plate.

The crime branch then questioned more than 5,000 drivers, whose vehicle had a yellow hood, to get leads on Rana.

Preliminary investigations revealed Rana was drunk when he saw the child who had come out to buy milk. He asked the girl to get inside the vehicle, and took her to Aarey Colony by t hreatening her with a knife. “She refused, but he forced her to sit in the front seat on his lap,” said Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of police (EOW), who has been given the additional charge of the joint commissioner of police (crime).

The Mumbai crime branch officials have asked the traffic police to prosecute all autorickshaw drivers who have radium strips below their registration number plate.