A 14-year-old girl was gang-raped here in the early hours of Monday.
Two minor boys, aged 15 and 16, were among the three arrested within hours of the crime. The police are now looking for another person, who, they suspect, is also complicit in the incident.
According to the investigating officer, the girl was sent to the market by her mother on Sunday evening.
On her way back, one of the family’s acquaintances reportedly stopped her and took her to the Malad station.
“He got her an ice-cream and took her to the CST [Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus] station at around 11.30 p.m. He made her sit in a corner and told her he would get some food,” sub-inspector D.M. Kuperkar told The Hindu .
“After some time, Abdul Rehman (20) approached her and asked her why she was sitting alone in the station. He asked her to stay in his place where she’d be safe. He [also] assured her that he would drop her home the next morning,” said Mr. Kuperkar.
The victim accompanied Rehman, who took her to the first floor of an unused public toilet facility at Masjid Bunder on P D’mello Road in South Mumbai.
The other two accused were waiting there for them. The three then raped the girl.
“They let her off around 3.15 a.m. and asked her to go home. When the girl was roaming listlessly on P D’mello road, a patrolling van of Pydhonie police station spotted her and questioned her. She told us the entire matter. We immediately went to the spot where we found Rehman. The other two had gone away. We arrested him and picked up the other two boys after interrogating him,” Mr. Kuperkar said.
He said the three were booked under Sections 363, 376 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
While Rehman was remanded in police custody for five days by a local court, the two minors accused of the crime and the victim have been sent to a remand home.
