Panvel youth held for impregnating teenager

A 20-year-old man from Panvel has been arrested for allegedly establishing a physical relationship with girl after promising her marriage.

The accused – Aniruddha Shaikh – however, refused to marry after the 19-year-old victim became pregnant. The girl then approached the police.

"The accused and the victim had been in a relationship for the past four years. The victim got into a physical relationship with the accused when she was 15. As the accused had promised to marry her, the victim never revealed it to anyone else," said a police officer from Khandeshwar police station.

The accused, however, started avoiding the girl when she told him about her pregnancy, around a week ago. He was not even ready to take the girl to the hospital to abort the unborn.

Scared, the girl finally narrated the entire episode to her parents. Following that, an FIR was registered by the girl's family and Shaikh was arrested on Tuesday. He is now in police custody. After initial investigation, the police have not found any criminal record of him so far.

Crime against women have increased two-fold in Navi Mumbai in 2013. However, in a majority of the cases, the accused were either relatives, acquaintance or family members of the victims.

"In more than 80% of the cases registered this year so far, the accused and victims were known to each other. Sex after false promise of marriage led to rape in these cases and we took action against the accused," a senior police officer said.