News Analysis India

Tag: Crime Against Minors

  • Haryana gang sold girls to older men for marriage, six held: Noida Police

    By PTI

    NOIDA: The Gautam Buddh Nagar Police arrested six people, including three women, as it busted a Haryana-based gang allegedly involved in kidnapping and selling minor girls for marriage with men much older to them, officials said.

    Deputy Commissioner of Police (Women and Child Safety) Vrinda Shukla said the local Rabupura police team was probing the case of a missing 12-year-old girl which led it to the gang and its members were arrested on Saturday.

    Shukla said the gang would lure young girls into going away with them and then sell them off for money to men much older than them for marriage.

    “On December 26 last year, the 12-year-old girl’s mother reported to the local police that her daughter was playing outside their house but suddenly went missing,” Shukla said.

    She said an FIR was lodged immediately and searches launched by the police which, during investigation, found a gang suspected of involvement in the case.

    “The police found that some women were also members of the gang and it was a woman who had lured the girl from outside her house. The police found that the girl was sold to a 52-year-old man in Haryana for Rs 70,000. The man has been identified as Jasveer,” the DCP said.

    “As the gang was busted, five of its members were arrested, including three women. Jasveer, who had got married to the girl, has also been arrested,” she said.

    The Gautam Buddh Nagar police said the gang has been found operating from Rohtak in Haryana but picks up children from other nearby areas also.

    Five more people linked to the gang have been identified and the police have gathered evidence against them, Shukla said, adding they would also be arrested soon.

    An FIR has been lodged in the case at the Rabupura police station and legal proceedings are underway, she added.

  • Class 10 student gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARNAGAR: Two people were arrested here for allegedly drugging a Class 10 student and gang-raping her, police said on Saturday.

    The minor girl had gone for tuition classes on Thursday from where two people allegedly drugged her and took her to a forest area near Sadpur village, according to a complaint lodged by her family.

    Two more people were waiting there and all four allegedly raped her, as per the complaint.

    She was later found in an unconscious state by her family members who had started searching for her along with police after she did not return home.

    She narrated the episode to her family after coming around.

    According to local Jansath police station SHO Bablu Singh Verma, a case was registered against four people based on the complaint and two were arrested.

    The minor was sent for a medical examination, he added.

  • Uttar Pradesh: School manager, held for trying to rape minor girl student, remanded to judicial custody

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARNAGAR: A school manager arrested for allegedly trying to rape a minor girl after taking her to another school in the Purkazi area of the district, was on Tuesday remanded to judicial custody.

    Special Judge Sanjiv Kumar Tiwari, heading a special court set up under the provisions of the POCSO Act, remanded the arrested school manager Yogesh Chouhan to judicial custody till December 21.

    While Chouhan was arrested, the police are on the lookout for another school manager Arjun.

    The two school managers had taken a batch of 17 girl students for practical examination to another school, where they had to stay overnight, Muzaffarnagar’s Superintendent of Police Abhishek Yadav said.

    During the night stay at another school, the managers had tried to rape two girls after giving them water laced with some stupefying substance, police said.

    The incident came to light when the girls returned home and narrated their woes to their parents, who reported the matter to the Purkazi police station, which, however, did not take up the matter promptly.

    The two school managers, however, were booked following the intervention of local BJP MLA Pramod Utwal.

    Purkazi police station’s SHO V K Singh too was transferred to the police lines for alleged dereliction of his duty in the matter.

    The two school managers were booked under sections 328 (for causing hurt by poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 7 and 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

  • Man sentenced to death for killing minor after rape in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr

    By PTI

    BULANDSHAHR: A man was awarded death sentence by a district court on Wednesday for raping and murdering a two-year-old girl.

    The Special POCSO Court Judge also imposed a fine of Rs 1,40,000 upon the man who had hidden the dead body of the victim after committing the act.

    The incident took place last July in Hirnot village of Shikarpur area.

    The girl, belonging to Hirnot village, was abducted by Prem Singh Prajapati on July 10, when she was playing in the neighbourhood.

    According to police, Prajapati raped the minor and hid her body near a pond in the village after killing her.

    Cracking the case within 11 days of the crime, police arrested the convict and filed a charge sheet against him in the court.

  • Nine-year-old girl raped by minor in Uttar Pradesh

    By PTI

    BANDA: A nine-year-old girl, who had gone to a farm to fetch pulses, was allegedly raped by a 14-year-old boy here, police said on Sunday.

    Marka Station House Officer Rakesh Saroj said the incident took place on Friday evening.

    Two other girls had accompanied the victim to the farm, he said.

    However, no information about them has been disclosed.

    A case was registered on Saturday based on a complaint lodged by the girl’s father, Saroj said, adding she has been for a medical examination.

    The accused is absconding and efforts to nab him are underway, he said.

  • Two awarded life term for raping minor girl in Jharkhand

    By PTI

    RAMGARH: A court in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district on Saturday sentenced two persons to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl in 2019.

    Radha Krishna, Additional District Judge-1, Ramgarh, awarded the punishment to the two men under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

    The court also slapped a fine of Rs 80,000 on each of them, and in default of payment, they will undergo three years of additional imprisonment.

    Manish Kumar Mahto and Basu Bedia were arrested in February 2019 on the charge of raping the girl.

    Altogether 10 witnesses were examined in the case.

  • Court jails rapist for seven years ignoring minor victim’s plea to pardon him

    By PTI

    GHAZIABAD: A special court here on Friday sentenced a man to seven years in jail for raping a minor girl eight years ago and leaving her with a six-month pregnancy.

    Special Judge Piyush Tiwari of a court set up under the POCSO Act convicted and sentenced Sahibabad resident Amzad despite the victim claiming that she was 18-year-old at the time of the alleged rape.

    Turning hostile to the prosecution case, she also pleaded with the court that she wanted to live with Amzad as she had been living with his family since his arrest in June 2014, Special Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Bakharva said.

    The court, however, sentenced the man to seven years in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 ignoring the victim’s pleas and after ascertaining that she was only 17 years old at the time of her rape, he added.

    The court, however, giving the convict the benefit of section 428 of the Criminal Procedure Code, set off Amzad’s sentence against the period of his detention that he underwent during the trial as he was never granted bail after his arrest in June 2014.

    The victim’s father who had lodged the complaint of her daughter’s rape had died during the trial, he said, adding the court asked the convict to give Rs 35,000 out of the fine to the victim.

  • Jharkhand gang-rape: Remaining seven accused arrested

    By PTI

    GUMLA: All the remaining seven people, wanted in connection with the gang-rape of two minor cousins in Jharkhand’s Gumla district, were arrested, police said on Tuesday.

    The two tribal girls were raped allegedly by 10 men on October 15 evening and the police had earlier arrested two of them, while another accused died by suicide.

    The police picked up the remaining seven accused, aged between 19 and 26 years, from various places of the district on Monday.

    The gang-rape took place when the girls along with their 20-year-old male cousin were returning home in Gurdari police station area from a Durga puja fair.

    The 10 accused in three motorcycles intercepted them and passed lewd comments at the girls.

    As the man protested, the accused assaulted him.

    He, however, managed to free himself and rushed to their village to seek help, Gumla Superintendent of Police Ehtesham Waquarib said on Monday.

    The miscreants then dragged the two girls to a forest and took turns to rape them.

    The accused persons had threatened them with dire consequences if they raised an alarm.

    They then beat the victims, took them to another nearby place and raped them again.

    The victims could identify two accused who had been arrested and forwarded to jail.

  • Maharashtra: 15-year-old girl raped multiple times over eight months; 33 booked, 26 held

    By PTI

    THANE: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped multiple times over a period of eight months in Maharashtra’s Thane district and the police have arrested 24 persons and detained two minors in the case, an official said on Thursday.

    Based on the girl’s complaint, the Manpada police in Dombivli registered a case on Wednesday night against 33 persons under IPC sections 376 (rape), 376 (n) (repeated rape), 376 (d) (gang-rape), 376 (3) (rape on a woman under sixteen years of age) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.

    Additional Commissioner of Police (East region) Dattatray Karale told reporters that the alleged incidents took place between January 29 and September 22 this year.

    The girl told a relative about the ordeal on Wednesday following which the complaint was registered, he added.

    “It all started when the girl’s boyfriend allegedly raped her in January and made a video. He then started blackmailing her. Subsequently, his friends and acquaintances raped her on at least four or five occasions at different places in the district including Dombivli, Badlapur, Murbad and Rabale,” Karale said.

    A special investigation team (SIT) has been formed under Assistant Commissioner of Police Sonali Dhole to probe the case, he added.

    “The victim has named 33 persons. Of them, 24 persons have been arrested and two minors detained. The girl’s condition is said to be stable,” Karale said, adding that search is on for the remaining accused.

    The arrested men were produced before a court on Thursday and were remanded in police custody till September 29, said another police official.

    Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis demanded that the Maharashtra government make special efforts to prevent such crimes.

    “An atmosphere of fear is prevailing in the state. The increase in the number of such incidents is worrisome,” the former chief minister said.

    “Such an incident taking place in Dombivli which is known as a peaceful city is very shocking. We demand that the government immediately intervene,” Fadnavis added.

    On the other hand, Shiv Sena leader and deputy chairperson of the Maharashtra Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe said the incident should not be politicized.

    The survivor should be protected, given counseling and rehabilitated, she said.

    Earlier this month, the Shiv Sena-led state government had come under fire when a 34-year-old woman died after being brutally raped and assaulted inside a stationary tempo in Mumbai’s Sakinaka area.

    One person was arrested in the case.

  • Sexual harassment of children at Uttar Pradesh ashram: Court examines child helpline incharge

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARNAGAR: A court here examined the incharge of a childcare helpline on Tuesday in connection with the 2020 case of sexual harassment of four children at an ashram in this district.

    In July last year, a team of the childcare helpline and police had rescued 10 children hailing from Tripura, Mizoram and Assam from the ashram in Shukartal here.

    Medical examination had confirmed that four of the children, aged between seven and 10 years, were sexually assaulted.

    Incharge of the helpline, Poonam Sharma, was examined by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court here on Tuesday.

    Special judge (POCSO Act) Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari adjourned the hearing in the case till October 12.

    The accused owner of the ashram, Swami Bhakti Bhushan Govind Maharaj and his disciple Krishan Mohan Das were also present in the court.

    Police had registered a case under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 377 (unnatural offences), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and sections 5/6 of the POCSO Act.

    The ashram owner and his disciple were subsequently arrested.