One held for rape, hunt on for main accused

A 15-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by two persons in suburban Diva area near Thane on Wednesday evening. While one of the accused has been arrested on Saturday morning, the main accused, however, is absconding and two teams of Mumbra police officials are looking for him.

According to police officials, the victim, a class 10 student, is a talented girl. She is very good academically and is the only child of her parents. Her father has a small shop in the area and mother is a housewife. The main accused, who is also the brother-in-law of the victim’s friend, had also allegedly tried to molest the girl earlier. But she had screamed at the accused and so he decided to rape her to teach her a lesson.

Sources from the police said that the two accused have identified, as Avinash Patil (25) a rickshaw driver and Chandan Ashok Dalavi (21). Both are friends and resident of the same area in Diva.

Speaking about the case, investigation officer of the case Dushaynt Chavan said, “Patil, a married man is the brother-in-law of the complainant’s friend. Whenever his sister-in-law would go to her house for studies, he would go to pick her up from there. He had also invited the complainant several times to his place but the girl always refused his invitations.” The officer added, “According to Patil’s friend Dalavi, Patil had feelings for the girl but they were not reciprocated and so he decided to take revenge by raping the girl.”

Inspector Chavan also added that on Wednesday evening, the girl left home around 6:30 pm to purchase material for making ‘rakhis’ as her vacation had started and she had joined art classes. While she was returning from the shop near Mhatre Nagar area Patil arrived in an auto rickshaw and told offered her a lift to her house.

The girl accepted the offer and got into the auto where Dalavi was already present. Patil then tied up the girl’s hands, gagged her and took her to a hut in a deserted area in Diva where he along with Dalavi allegedly raped her, said sources from the police.

The girl was held captive till 11.30 pm. “They also threatened her of dire consequences if she revealed the incident to anyone. After this, the accused dropped the girl off at home,” said inspector Chavan.

The girl did not reveal anything to her parents till Friday. But, she stopped going for classes and kept to herself for two days. On her mother asking her what was wrong, the girl broke down and narrated the incident to her after which the family approached the police.

A source from the Mumbra police said, “We have registered offences under sections 363, 366, 376 (G), 342 and 506 of the IPC and also sections 3, 4, 5(G) and 6 of the POCSO Act of 2012. The hunt for Patil is underway.”