Accused was arrested two years ago for sexually assaulting a six-year-old, was out on bail
The Amboli police has arrested a 40-year-old alleged serial molester, out on bail, for allegedly raping two eight-year-old girls in the secluded staircase area of their building in Jogeshwari (west) recently. The Oshiwara police had arrested the same accused two years ago for allegedly sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl. But he was released on bail after spending two months in prison. “Based on the repeat offence, we will move the court requesting them to cancel his bail in that case,” said ACP Arun Chavan.
According to the Amboli police, the incident occurred on October 29 around 8.15 pm on the fifth floor of a building in Jogeshwari area which falls in their jurisdiction. The accused Shahazad Amiuddin Ansari is a resident of Jogeshwari and is married with three children including a daughter. He is a welder by profession.
The police said Ansari went to the building with the intention of committing the crime. He saw the girls playing on the road and lured them with a chocolate. When they said their parents have told them not to accept chocolates from strangers he threatened and took them to a secluded staircase area on the fifth floor of their building. There he raped both the girls but one of them escaped and ran off but he continued to rape the second girl. By the time the first girl got her parents, Ansari had escaped.
Mr Chavan said, “The parents registered an FIR only next day. They should have come immediately after the incident. But the girls are brilliant. They are in the third standard. They provided us good detailed description of the accused.” Additional commissioner, west region, Cherring Dorje asked detections teams from other police stations to join the probe, as it was a very serious issue. “Within a span of ten hours we arrested the accused based on the description provided by the victims. We didn’t know anything about him,” he said. “People do not come forward in such cases thinking their children are young and fear social stigma. But this emboldens the accused. We appeal people to register cases without any fear of stigma,” said senior police inspector Ramesh Khadtare of Amboli police station.
A team of detections officers API Amar Patil and API Vinod Patil nabbed the accused at 1.30 am while he was wandering on a footover bridge in Jogeshwari. He has been remanded to police custody till November 5. This time he has been booked for rape under IPC and Pocso.
