Pune teen abducted, sexually abused over ties with girl; 6 classmates booked

PUNE: Six boys, all aged 16 years, were booked by the Chandannagar police on the charge of abducting their classmate from his housing society in Kharadi and assaulting and sexually abusing him at an open plot in Mundhwa around 2.30pm on Tuesday.
"All the boys, including the victim, belong to middle class families and are students of an English school in Kharadi. They are appearing in the state board examination. The boys accused of the crime were annoyed by the victim's friendship with a girl, also a friend of one of them," said senior inspector Rajendra Landge of the Chandannagar police.

He said, "We have served notices to the parents of the accused, asking them to produce the boys for investigation as and when summoned by the investigation officer. For now, it won't be appropriate to detain and question them in the middle of the exam."
A case for offences punishable under sections 377 (unnatural offence), 363 (kidnapping) and 323 (causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code, besides the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been registered after the victim lodged a complaint on Tuesday evening, stating that the six boys reached his housing society on two-wheelers and forcibly took him to the open plot in Mundhwa.
The police did not invoke charges of underage driving under the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act against the six boys despite the victim mentioning in his complaint that they took him away on their two-wheelers. When asked about it, Landge said, "For now, we are focusing on more serious charges and will take a call on the underage driving issue subsequently."
Citing the complaint, Landge said, "One of the six boys was close to a girl, but she developed a greater friendship with the victim over the last few months. This riled the accused boy. He connived with his five other classmates to hatch a plot to teach the victim a lesson so that he maintains distance from the girl."
He said, "The victim's parents run a small shop in the area and do social work. The parents of the other minors are employed in private companies as clerical and office staffers."
Landge said, "The boys had an off-day on Tuesday on account of Holi. The accused boys went to the victim's house on four motorcycles and scooters. They forced him to sit on one of the motorcycles and took him to the open plot in Mundhwa. After reaching the spot, the boys slapped the victim and sexually abused him."
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)