Ahilyanagar cops rescue minor girl, arrest 3 for kidnap & rape

Nashik: Police have rescued a 16-year-old girl, who was reported missing from a village in the Rahuri area of Ahilayanagar district since Feb 13, from a forest area near Ramshej Fort on the outskirts of this north Maharashtra city and arrested three men on the charges of kidnapping and raping her. The police on Friday said after the girl — a junior college student whose parents are casual workers — was rescued on Wednesday night, she gave a statement that the three men held her captive and accused one of them, — the prime suspect, of repeatedly raping her for five days. The police said security had to be stepped up because tension gripped the Rahuri area as two of the arrested trio belonged to a different community. Ahilyanagar superintendent of police Somnath Gharge said, "The missing complaint lodged by the girl's parents stated that she had gone to the junior college on Feb 13, and did not return home. " Based on the information provided by the girls' family, the police suspected two men from the village involved in the crime and started tracking their movements. The SP said, "Tracking the two men was difficult as they were not using their own cellphones. Besides, the accused had taken the girl to a forest area that was secluded. We got the first clue of their whereabouts when one of the kidnappers used the cellphone of a person at a kiosk close to a bus stop near Ramshej Fort to call his family members and told them to transfer him some money. The money was transferred to him through an online transaction." Inspector Sanjay Thenge of the Rahuri police station, "Our teams reached the spot, showed the girl's photographs to people there and managed to reach the place where she was held captive. We rescued the girl, arrested the three and handed her over to her parents following due procedures," The police said the motorcycle used in the crime was yet to be recovered. The police have slapped Section 137 (2) [kidnapping] of BNS against the three men and relevant sections of POCSO Act against the prime accused. A court in Rahuri remanded them to police custody till Feb 26. MLA Sangram Jagtap, while speaking to the media on Friday, demanded strict action against the accused.