After over a month, the Mumbai police have arrested a 19-year-old youth for brutally raping an 8-year-old girl in Wadala on October 24. The youth was arrested after some locals spotted him taking another girl, a 6-year-old, to the same spot with the intention of allegedly sexually assaulting her.
According to the Wadala TT police station, the accused, identified as Mohammed Shafiq Abdul Rashid Ahmed Khan, was arrested in connection with the rape of a minor over a month ago. Khan, a native of Uttar Pradesh, has been living in Wadala TT area for the last three months.
"When Khan was arrested, we had a doubt as he had taken a six-year-old victim to the same spot where the earlier victim was raped," said Sunil Kadam, inspector, Wadala TT police station.
"When we started interrogating him, he tried to misguide investigators by specifically stating that he came to Mumbai on October 28, four days after the first incident." The police summoned Khan's friends in the locality and started questioning them. "One of Khan's friends, Javed, broke down and told us that Khan had come to Mumbai three months ago. He had confided into him that he raped an 8-year-old girl earlier," said PI Kadam.
Khan was subsequently arrested and booked under Section IPC 376 I and various sections of Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He has been remanded in police custody till December 9. On October 24, close to 9.30 pm, when the 8-year-old girl was playing with her elder brother, who is nine years, outside their father's shop in Wadala. An unknown man approached the duo and took them few meters away on the pretext of playing hide and seek. He brutally raped the girl behind a public toilet.
A compensation of Rs 3.5 lakh, which was delayed by a month, was finally provided to the girl by the Women and Child Welfare Department. The girl had sustained injuries in her mouth, vagina and rectum. She also developed drug reaction to the anti-HIV treatment she was being administered and blisters on her skin. "The reaction has now started receding and she is recuperating well," said Dr Avinash Supe, dean, BMC-run Sion Hospital, said.
The family of the girl is doubtful that the police may have arrested the wrong guy. Three days ago, he was brought to Sion hospital, so that the 8-year-old girl would identify him. "However, she refused to identify the suspected accused and was not sure whether it was the same perpetrator," said Niranjan Aher of Jan Jagriti Manch, an NGO that is providing support to the child.
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