The Maharashtra State Police on Tuesday (21st November) arrested an individual identified as Rihan Gulamnavi Rangrez (19) for abducting a minor girl from the Pimpalgaon region of Maharashtra’s Nashik district. The accused is said to have blackmailed the victim and threatened her with death. He also is said to have established sexual relations with the victim without her will.
The police have taken cognizance of the complaint filed by the father of the girl and booked the accused under section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Team OpIndia contacted the Nashik Rural Police to confirm that the accused has been arrested and that the sections of POCSO to the case will be added after a detailed investigation.
The 19-year-old accused belongs to Jaipur, Rajasthan, and studies in the high school. He has been taken into custody, as per the Police.
The FIR in the said case was filed on 16th November this year in which the minor girl, 17, said that she was blackmailed by the accused and was forced to enter into unwanted sexual association. As per the complaint copy, the boy also blackmailed the girl and threatened her to accompany her to Rajasthan.
The girl stated that she came across accused Rihan on the Telegram app after which the latter began developing a friendship with her. He then influenced and forced her to be in a love relationship. “He began talking to me about relationships. He also once expressed his intention to marry and said that he would keep me happy. I assumed all this to be true and eventually started liking him. But his real face got exposed later,” the girl said.
The family members of the girl came to know about the accused and slammed the girl for keeping a relationship. “They scolded me. I was very furious. All this was going on for months. On 15th November I talked to Rihan when he forced me to leave my house. He also threatened and blackmailed me saying that he would kill himself if I didn’t follow his orders. He took advantage of my emotional vulnerability and forced me to leave my place on 16th November,” the statement by the girl to Nashik Rural Police read.
As per the FIR, the girl travelled to Nashik and from there to Kalyan where she met the accused for the first time. The accused then took the girl to Ahmedabad via train and then finally to Jaipur, Rajasthan. The accused kept the girl in a flat for two days and then began forcing himself upon her.
“He took me to some flat and kept me there from 17th November to 19th November. During that period, he threatened me, blackmailed me, and established sexual relations with me. I kept on refusing but he didn’t stop. This happened several times. But I was alone and couldn’t contact my parents. However, my family traced me to Jaipur after they filed a police complaint on 16th November,” the statement by the girl was filed on 20th November.
However, the FIR was filed on 16th November based on the complaint filed by the father of the girl. The father of the girl in the complaint stated that his minor daughter was influenced and abducted by some unknown person on the 16th early morning.
“We didn’t see her in bed at around 4:30 am on the 16th. Initially, we thought she had gone for her daily morning walk. But she didn’t return till 9:30 am after which we got worried and called her friend. She said that our girl didn’t go for a walk with her today. We then rushed to the police and filed an abduction report,” the father of the girl said.
Team OpIndia contacted the Pimpalgaon Police Station to confirm the event. The police exclusively informed OpIndia that the girl had been safely recovered and was handed over to the concerned family. The police also stated that the accused had been arrested and sections of POCSO to the given case would be added only after a thorough investigation.
