Police on Wednesday arrested a cashew trader on charges of kidnapping and raping a minor girl.
Mulchand Bhati (30) of Rajasthan had come to the city five years ago and was staying at his brother’s house at Bowenpally.
He had lured the Class 9 student, his neighbour, under the pretext of taking her on a trip. Instead, he took her to a village near Mohali in February 2011, police said. After confining the girl in a room and threatening her, he had allegedly been sexually assaulting her since. The accused had also taken her to Delhi and Chhattisgarh, police officials said.
Last week, the girl managed to give Mulchand the slip and come back to her parents in Bowenpally.
The girl, along with her family members, approached North Zone DCP R. Jaya Lakshmi who sent special teams to Punjab, Delhi and Chhattisgarh to trace Mulchand. One of the teams succeeded in nabbing him at Mohali. He was brought to the city on Wednesday and later remanded to judicial custody.
Bowenpally police have registered a case under Sections 346 (wrongful confinement in secret), 376 (rape), 363 (kidnap) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
A few years ago, Mulchand had been arrested by Task Force police for allegedly trying to extort money from businessmen at Shahinayathgunj by claiming himself to be a close aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. He had been elusive ever since he was released on bail.
