The police have arrested four persons in connection with the rape of a minor girl reported here in 2016.
Hubballi-Dharwad Commissioner of Police Pandurang Rane told presspersons here on Monday that a team headed by Police Inspector Shripad Jalde attached to the Old Hubli Police Station arrested the culprits on Monday. The arrested are Annappa alias Veerendra Sherkhane (23) of Sharavati Nagar, Amit Prabhu Prabhakar of Ambedkar Nagar, Sunil Madar (23) of Sharavati Nagar and Vinod Yellapur (20) of Shivashankar Nagar. One of the accused, Veerendra Sherkhane, was the minor girl’s boyfriend, he said.
Mr. Rane said that the minor girl was having an affair with Veerendra Sherkhane. He allegedly took her to an abandoned KPTCL office premises located on Karwar Road and raped her. Later, the three others, who were present on the spot, forced her to have sex with them. They told the girl that they have video-recorded the whole incident and threatened her that they would make it public, if she did not satiate their wishes. They also threatened her that they would release the video on the social media if she revealed the incident to anyone.
However, the girl showed symptoms of pregnancy and gave birth to a baby boy at a hospital here on December 8, 2016. The doctors found that the girl was not married and unwilling to accept her baby. They informed the Child Welfare Committee, which, in turn, informed the police. The police immediately registered a case and handed over the child to a Balamandir, he added.
The police took time to resolve the case as it involved a sensitive issue. Also, the police did not reveal the incident to the media as it would have alerted the culprits and disrupted the process of investigation.
After collecting all information pertaining to the incident, the police team arrested all the accused at one go. Even the accused persons were unaware that a case had been registered against them and that the police were investigating it.