Tension gripped Talegaon, Trimbakeshwar, Nashik and many other areas along the Mumbai-Agra highway after a 16-year-old boy allegedly raped a five-year-old girl near Talegaon late on Saturday night.
According to the police, the girl was playing with her seven-year-old sister when the boy sent away the elder girl and lured the younger one to go with him. He took her to an empty room behind the Maruti temple in the area and reportedly molested and raped her. The elder sister called out to her grandmother and when she came running, the boy fled the spot. The girls are from Adgaon and had come to their maternal grandmother’s place in Talegaon for a holiday.
More that 15 vehicles, including five buses and seven to eight pickup vans were set ablaze in many places. Passengers were asked to disembark before the buses were torched.
A case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was filed against the boy and he was taken into police custody on Saturday night itself. But as news broke about the incident, a mob gathered at the locality and started shouting slogans and pelting stones. Many residents had to flee their houses and the angry mob burnt material inside the houses. Police had to fire smoke rounds in the air to control the situation.
Superintendent of police Ankush Shinde rushed to Talegaon but tempers were running high.
The scene then shifted to the Nashik civil hospital, where both the boy and girl were taken for medical examination. However, as doctors were not immediately available, there was mob fury again and the situation became tense. A rasta roko followed and police commissioner Ravindra Kumar Singal rushed to the hospital.
Among the many reasons for the flare-up, the ones making the rounds were the rumours about the incident on social media and the statement by guardian minister for Nashik, Girish Mahajan, that that there was an attempt to rape. Though he said that the case will be tried in a fast-track court, reactions flared up.
On Sunday morning, protests started again in different areas. The tyres of a tanker were punctured and were used to block the road in Vilholi. Tension prevailed in Wadivhare, Igatpuri and the Mumbai-Agra highway and traffic was blocked till late evening on Sunday. There was a similar situation on the Nashik-Pune and Nashik-Aurangabad roads as well.
In the morning, BJP leader and former revenue minister Eknath Khadse met the family members of the victim. The guardian minister also visited the family at the civil hospital. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also gave the same assurance.
Some vehicles were burnt on the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar road as well. Stones were pelted at police vehicles. In fact, a stone hurled on the vehicle of special IG Vinaykumar Choube's vehicle broke the glass pane. A morcha against the incident was planned in Adgaon as the girl's family belongs to the area.
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