SURAT: Police arrested three men aged 20 from Bardoli in
Surat district on Sunday for gang-raping a 14-year-old girl.
The accused kidnapped the girl, who is the daughter of a labourer, in an autorickshaw on Thursday night and raped her in a shop.
The girl did not inform anyone about the rape since she was threatened of dire consequences by the accused, but she informed her family later. They helped her lodge a police complaint on Saturday night.
Police arrested Naresh alias Ajay Dharma Javre, Chhotu Prashant Modi and Aakash Ambu Rathod, who are residents of Bardoli town. The accused were booked under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping for marriage), 376 (d) gang-rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
Javre and the rape survivor knew each other as they lived in the same locality. Javre, an autorickshaw driver, used to follow the girl. On Thursday night too, he followed the girl when she went to buy snacks at a nearby shop. He offered to drop her home in the autorickshaw. When she sat in the autorickshaw, the accused took her to a nearby shopping complex and raped her in a jewellery shop.
Javre got the jewellery shop opened at night with the help of his friend and accused Modi, who was employed there. After Javre, Modi and Rathod, a labourer, raped the girl the accused allowed the girl to go home in the morning but threatened her of dire consequences if she informed anyone about the incident.
“The rape survivor was terrified. Hence, she did not discuss the incident with anyone. But when her parents questioned her where she had been in the night she told them that she was kidnapped and raped. Later, the girl approached police and registered a complaint on Saturday,” police said.
“She did not inform family or police initially that she was raped by other two men too. But during medical examination, doctors informed police that she had been raped by more than one person. The accused also confessed to have raped the minor girl,” said N S Chauhan, police inspector, Bardoli police station.
