Fortnight after 7-year-old was raped, relative is arrested

A 29-year-old man was arrested from Rajkot in Gujarat late on Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl who is a distant relative of his. The arrest of Dhanvir Thapa alias Jaisingh Nepali, comes a fortnight after the alleged crime took place when Thapa had come to Mumbai.

Thapa, who works as a guard at a hotel Rajkot, had lured the child by promising to buy her sweets. He took her to a garden in Charkop where he sexually assaulted the girl for over an hour, said the police.

Senior inspector Aanand Koli of Charkop police station said that when he dropped the child home, she was in pain. "When the girl's mother took her to a hospital near their house, doctors said it was some infection and prescribed medication," said Koli. "Two days later, when the pain did not subside, she was re-examined and, this time, the hospital authorities confirmed sexual assault."

When the girl's mother asked her about it, she named Thapa and her mother subsequently lodged a police complaint.

A police team arrested Thapa from his workplace in Rajkot on Thursday night. He has been arrested for rape, said Koli.