THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city police have arrested a 20-year-old man on charges of kidnapping a minor girl and raping her. The police identified the accused as Noufal alias Appu of Velinalloor in Kollam. His arrest was recorded at Medical College police station here.
The Medical College police said that charge against the accused is that he lured a 15-year-old girl and took her to Kollam, where he sexually exploited her. The case was registered after receiving a missing complaint from the parents of the girl, who resided near Kumarapuram under the station limits, two days ago.
Deputy commissioner of police (law and order) Divya V Gopinath constituted a special team under Medical College police station house officer (SHO) to track down the girl. The investigation led them to Noufal.
Medical College SHO inspector G Harilal said that the accused befriended the girl through social media and lured her into relationship. The police found out that the girl had made several calls to the phone of the accused from the phone she used for online classes. This helped the cops to find out the girl by tracking Noufal’s phone location. They were found from a resort at Munroethuruthu in Kollam. The resort authorities told the police that since the girl was wearing mask they could not realize that she was a minor. The accused has been remanded in judicial custody.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)