The Rabale police have arrested a 27-year-old man for raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl.
Sumit Saha, who hails from Bihar, was arrested on Sunday night from Ghansoli based on his call data records. The accused helped out at a vada pav stall and befriended the girl in November 2019 while she was assisting her father, who ran another vada pav stall.
On June 12 this year, the girl complained of persistent pain in her stomach. “Her father took her for a check-up and found out that she was eight months pregnant. A complaint was then filed with the Rabale police,” Vinayak Vast, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vashi Zone, said.
The girl said the accused raped her repeatedly in a room near their vada pav stall. The accused went absconding soon after an FIR was registered against him under Sections 376, 376 (2) (n), 376 (3) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
During interrogation, the police learnt that in 2018 the accused had abducted the girl’s 15-year-old cousin, who is still missing. “That case, which was being investigated by the Anti Human Trafficking Unit, has now been transferred to us. The accused has not yet revealed the whereabouts of the missing girl,” assistant police inspector Dattatray Dhume said.
The accused has been remanded in police custody till November 2. The girl has delivered a baby and is at her parents’ house in Ghansoli.
