The police have arrested two men for allegedly molesting the minor girl. (Representational)
From her friend dying by suicide to being molested in a moving cab in Mumbai, a 17-year-old girl, who fled her home in Bengaluru, had a harrowing time in the city over the last one month.
The police have arrested two men for allegedly molesting the minor girl.
The girl had run away from her home and arrived in Mumbai in November 2019. She started working at a hotel in Kurla where she met an 18-year-old boy. The two subsequently decided to move in together.
However, on June 26 the boy allegedly killed himself by jumping off a foot overbridge in Dharavi, the police said. The boy’s family blamed the girl. Police, however, did not press any charges against her. But the police sent her to a children’s home as she is a minor.
Meanwhile, the police produced her before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which directed them to ensure the girl was sent home in Bengaluru. However, due to the lockdown, the police, who were stretched, could not comply with the directive, sources said.
After over a week at the children’s home, the girl fell sick and was moved to a hospital. She, however, ran away from the hospital on July 11, the police said. The hospital authorities informed the police.
During the investigation, the police found her talking to several taxi drivers in CCTV footage. “She wanted to go to Pune, from where she wanted to board a bus to Bengaluru. She kept requesting cab drivers to drop her,” an officer said.
The police said the accused, one of whom is a cab driver and the other his friend, who too was present in the vehicle, said they would drop her in Pune. After she boarded the cab, the accused allegedly molested her in the moving car, the police added.
The girl told the police that she asked them to stop and even raised alarm for help. The accused then drove to Mumbra, the police said.
From CCTV footage, the police managed to locate the cab in Mumbra. “We informed Thane control room and at around 3 pm on Saturday, we caught the accused from the car and rescued the girl,” an officer said.
Police have booked them under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code along with sections 8 and 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
The two were produced in POCSO court, which has remanded them in police custody for three days.
The girl’s statement was recorded by the POCSO court on Monday.