LUDHIANA: Two men in their early 20s were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to
rape together two minors, aged three and six, in a village near here.
The accused and the minors live in the same building, whose owner has leased out small rooms on rent. The accused hail from Nepal. While one of them is aged 22 and works as a waiter for a caterer, the other is aged 20 and is a cook with the same employer.
The duo were caught in the act, after the mother of the six-year-old girl raised the alarm and neighbours broke open the door of their room. In her police complaint, the woman alleged that she was cooking dinner around 9.30pm on Tuesday when she noticed that her daughter was not around.
As she stepped out of the room, she noticed the 20-year-old accused rushing into his room. When she tried to open the door of his house, it was locked from inside. She then informed neighbours, who broke the door.
She alleged that they saw the two accused trying to separately rape each of the minors. The duo, however, managed to force their way out of the crowd that had gathered at that time.
The woman then informed the police, following which the accused were charged with sections 376 (rape), 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under sections 7 and 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The investigating officer (IO), assistant sub-inspector
Madhu Bala, said they arrested the duo near a petrol pump on
Ferozepur Road. “We will get the accused medically examined at the civil hospital here. The girls were not examined as their families did not want them to go undergo them,” she said. “We have counselled the kids. The older on studies in nursery.”
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