Mumbai: The Mahim police on Friday night booked a 16-year-old boy for allegedly forcing himself on a seven-year-old girl. The incident occurred at around 7.30 p.m. on Friday in the Naya Nagar slum near Raheja Hospital.
The Mahim police said the accused and the victim are neighbours and know each other well.
“The victim had stepped out to buy a match box on her mother’s instructions. On her way back, the accused, who was alone in his house at the time, grabbed her and forced her inside his residence. He then slapped her several times to subdue her, gagged her with a towel and forced himself on her,” said a police officer.
After the boy allowed her to leave, she went home and told her mother who immediately took her to the Mahim police station. The police took the girl for medical examination, which indicated injuries to her private parts, and she was admitted to the Nagpada police hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, a police team picked up the accused from his residence and charged him with rape and assault under the Indian Penal Code, and sexual assault on a minor under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The accused was subsequently sent to the juvenile remand home in Dongri, the police said.
50-year-old held for rape
In another case of sexual abuse that came to light on Friday, the Byculla police have arrested a 50-year-old man for allegedly raping his tenant’s 19-year-old daughter for over a year. The police said that the accused identified as Mohammed Hassan Sheikh, was threatening to evict her and her family from his house, and to kill her father and brother, if she did not submit to his demands.
“The matter came to light when the victim’s family discovered that she was eight months pregnant, and confronted her about it. When she told them of being exploited by Sheikh, her family approached us,” said an officer with the Byculla police.
The police, after recording the victim’s statement, registered an FIR of rape and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code and arrested Sheikh on Friday. The victim, in her statement, has told the police that Sheikh first forced himself on her in January 2016.
“As the victim was under 18 when the exploitation began, we have also added relevant sections of the POCSO Act against the accused,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone V) Paramjit Singh Dahiya, who is currently holding charge of the Zone III.
