E-Paper
Five in police custody for sexual assault, kidnap of two minor girls
The minors knew the boys as acquaintances, according to the police
PUNE: Five men were arrested by Pimpri-Chinchwad police and remanded to custody by a local court on Thursday for kidnapping a minor girl who was sexually assaulted by one of them while another person among the five molested the girl’s cousin sister in Nigdi on Tuesday night.
The five were identified as Karan Bhairavnath Sable (21), Ashish Anand Sarode (20), Biwas Sajay Sutar (20), Tejas Raju Waghmare (19), and Kartik alias Dinkya Rajkumar Chavan (21) all residents of Chinchwad.
“The girls had gone for a dinner function at one of their relatives’ houses and knew the boys as acquaintances. At night, on their way back home, the girls were approached by these men and while talking the two men - Sable and Sarode - led the girls to a secluded spot. While one girl was sexually assaulted, the other was taken to an abandoned building and molested,” said assistant police inspector Vijaykumar Dhumal of Nigdi police station.
The girls - one Class 10 student and another Class 10 dropout - who were in shock and frightened, told the police that the men got scared of public reaction and decided to kidnap the girls.
“So, they called three others and took the girls to Chinchwad railway station where they were held inside the car until 4:30-5am on Wednesday. When it was fairly empty, they dropped the girls in the locality of their house,” Dhumal.
The men are labourers - working as rag-pickers, waiters and car cleaners - according to the police. The owner of the car is yet to be ascertained.
A case under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (sexual assault), 354(b) (molestation) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code along with Sections 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO) was registered at Nigdi police station against the five.
