On Tuesday, January 3, Maharashtra Police registered a complaint against a Muslim individual, Sameer Saleem Patel, for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in the Vai region of Satara district. The accused has been sexually exploiting the victim girl since June last year. The case has been registered under section 376 (n) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), sections 4 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), and sections 3 (1) (w), 3 (2) (v) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
According to the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia, both, the accused and the victim are residents of the Kadegao area of Vai and the victim girl is at present studying in standard 12. The girl in the complaint mentioned that she knew Sameer since December 2021. “Sameer used to work on our farm. We met once or twice. Later he became friends with my brother and started coming home. He also developed friendly relations with me so much so that I started trusting him,” the girl said.
She added that in February last year, the accused called her to a cafe named ‘Dream Coffee Shop’ and expressed his love for her. He made her believe that he was in love with her and demanded sexual favours from her. On refusal, he assured the girl that he would marry her in the future. The girl in the report said that the accused took her to a room behind the cafe and developed sexual relations with her against her will.
As per the FIR copy, the accused sexually assaulted the victim girl in June 2022. Later he continued to rape the victim several times by calling her to the cafe after her college hours. The saga continued till December 2022. The victim in December last year discovered that the accused was having multiple similar affairs. She also discovered that he had given false hopes to her that he would marry her in the future.
“We had gone to Mandhar Dev, a Hindu religious place in December 2022 on his bike. There he again promised me that he would marry me. Later my parents helped me uncover the truth that he was cheating on me and that he had sexually assaulted me by giving false hopes that he would marry me,” the girl reported.
Earlier, a similar case was reported from Ahmednagar in which a girl was raped several times by the accused identified as Ajmoddin Mohammed Sheikh. The accused had trapped the girl into a love affair and had raped her brutally. The Police had then booked the accused under IPC sections 376 (2) (n), 506 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POSCO) sections 5 (j) (2), 5 (l), and 6.
In the current case, the Police have registered a complaint under section 376 (n) of IPC, sections 4 and 6 of POCSO, and sections 3 (1) (w), 3 (2) (v) of the Scheduled Caste, and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Per the FIR, the victim was born in the year 2005 and is 17 years old at present. Further investigations into the case are underway.
