A 16-year-old Mumbai girl was discovered on a Puducherry beach in a severely debilitated state after she was missing for two days. The girl who was visiting her family along with her parents in Pondicherry for Diwali was reported missing two days ago after she left the house due to a disagreement with her parents on 30th October. Police searched for the girl after receiving a missing person’s complaint from her mother, a day later and found her on Puducherry Beach Road on 1st November. After her discovery, it has been revealed that she was abducted and raped, first by an auto driver named Khawaja Moinuddin (34) and subsequently by a group of tourists.
The victim was brought to JIPMER (Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research) hospital, where medical reports established she had been sexually assaulted. She had been staying at a relative’s house, according to police sources, and left the house around 9:10 pm following a fight with her parents. She then got into an autorickshaw when the driver Moinuddin from Kottakuppam, promised to show her the area.
According to investigations, he offered her alcohol and drove her to a guest house and then his home in Kottakuppam in Villupuram district, where he raped her after noticing her vulnerability and realizing she was unfamiliar with the place and its roads. He left her off in Auroville, the following morning.
The girl then attempted to hail a ride from a group of techies (six) who were travelling to Chennai as she wanted to meet her friend there. However, they led her to a room, held her captive and gang-raped her for two days after which they arranged for a cab to take her back to Puducherry. According to other reports, she was still intoxicated when four tourists saw her after she was dropped off close to Puducherry Beach Road. They took her to Chennai and gang-raped her before leaving her at the same spot in Puducherry.
On the evening of 31st October, her parents and other family members, who had begun a search for her, filed a complaint with the Grand Bazaar police station. Initially, a kidnapping case was filed. On 1st November, a police patrol squad discovered the girl strolling along Puducherry Beach Road. There were indications of sexual assault during the girl’s medical evaluation. Afterwards, she disclosed the specifics of her sexual violation to a Child Welfare Board team during counselling.
The police used CCTV footage in its probe and arrested the auto driver on 4th November and later three techies were nabbed, while the hunt was underway to capture others. Moinuddin, one Andhra Pradesh techie and two Odisha techies have been taken into custody by Grand Bazaar Police under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which addresses punishment for serious sexual assault and Section 137 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with kidnapping.
The tourists spotted her on Serenity Beach, became friends with her and offered to give her a ride when she mentioned that she wanted to see a friend in Chennai, according to Grand Bazaar police inspector A Jayasankar, per other reports. He disclosed that there, they took turns sexually abusing her while confining her to a room provided by their office and piled her with alcohol. They reportedly dropped her off on Beach Road in Puducherry after sending her there in a taxi on 2nd November. A tip about a girl wandering about Beach Road was received by the Grand Bazaar police and they located her after submitting a “missing girl” case in response to her mother’s complaint.
“She was weak and not in a position to explain anything. She was admitted to Jipmer where a child welfare committee team made preliminary inquiries after she recovered. She is under treatment for a personality disorder,” the police official informed.
