Two cases reported in Mumbai and Thane on Friday point towards the increasing involvement of teenagers in sexual crimes.
The first case was reported to the Bhoiwada police in Bhiwandi on Wednesday, when a nine-year-old boy told his parents he had been assaulted by a stranger while he was playing.
“The man approached the boy and sought his help to fill some sand into a gunny sack at a nearby construction site. The victim went with him and the accused took him to a secluded corner, where he sexually assaulted him. He left after threatening to kill him if he told anyone about what had happened,” a police officer said.
Based on a description of the accused provided by the victim, the police sent three teams to make inquiries in the area. The teams worked with local informants and zeroed in on Arsalan Ansari (19), a resident of Handi Compound in Bhiwandi. He was arrested on Friday and charged with sexual assault on a minor under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, along with criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code.
In the second incident, which was also reported on Wednesday, a receptionist working for a Girgaum-based doctor registered a complaint with the DB Marg police. The woman told the police that she had received a video of an unidentified man in an intimate position on WhatsApp and when she texted the number asking who it was, the person responded with abusive language.
Unit II of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, which was conducting parallel inquiries in the matter, obtained registration details and location of the phone number, which led them to Kamathipura.
“We worked for two days in the area, consistently tracking the number’s movements and making inquiries with local residents. On Friday, we picked up Farhan Sheikh (19), an employee of a medical shop on Faras Road,” a Crime Branch officer said.
The officer said Mr. Sheikh works as an attendant and sleeps in the shop at night. “He has said in his confession that he and the complainant are part of a WhatsApp group where professionals from the medical field exchange information about the industry, which is how he got her number. We have found several similar videos of himself in his phone, some of which he has also shared with his friends,” the officer said.
Mr. Sheikh has been handed over to the DB Marg police for inquiries.
