A 44-year-old taxi driver was arrested on Thursday for allegedly kidnapping and molesting a four-year-old girl in CST area.
The arrested man has been identified as Rafiq Abdul Sattar Sayyed, a resident of Tambaku Lane in Masjid Bunder. The police will get his DNA tests done to ascertain whether he had any role in SoBo serial rape and murders of girls.
The girl and her 23-year-old mother were sleeping outside their shanty on Thursday. “Around 3.15am, the woman woke up to see an unknown person trying to make her daughter sit in a taxi. The complainant then raised an alarm after which the taxi driver fled in his vehicle,” said a police source, requesting anonymity.
The man was trying to abduct a girl and made her sit in his cab. He also molested her. When the woman raised an alarm, the man fled. The woman alerted a police patrolling party. The police team scanned the nearby areas all night and rounded up few taxi drivers. “Sayyed was identified by the girl and her mother. He has been booked under sections 363a (kidnapping of a minor) and 354 (molestation) of the Indian Penal Code. He has been remanded to police custody till January 7,” the officer said.
A senior police officer said that soon DNA samples of Sayyed will be taken for analysis and will be matched with those samples taken from the victims killed in Colaba and Cuffe Parade areas in 2010 and 2011. “Sayyed’s face does match with the sketch of the suspected serial killer, but the crucial evidence will be the DNA test results,” said another senior police officer.
