Eight-year-old boy sodomised in Navi Mumbai; police arrest accused

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Navi Mumbai police has arrested a 38-year-old man for allegedly sodomising an eight-year-old boy. The accused has been identified as Sanaull Hakim Sheikh, a resident of Masjid Bunder in Mumbai, newswire PTI reported.

An officer of the Khandeshwar police station told PTI that a case under relevant sections of the IPC like 377 (unnatural offences) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) was registered against the accused.

The victim is the son of a watchman who works at a building in Khandeshwar in Navi Mumbai, he said. The accused took the boy to the terrace of the building, where the latter's father is employed, under the pretext of seeking his help to locate a flat and allegedly sodomised the minor on Sunday afternoon, said the officer.

Meanwhile, a 31-year-old member of Vikrant Deshmukh gang absconding since four years in a case of murder has been arrested in Navi Mumbai, police said on Monday.

The accused, Rakesh Janardhan Koli, and other members of the gang allegedly kidnapped Nerul area resident Sachin Garje in September 2019 over an enmity, killed him and dumped the body in the Uran creek, a crime branch official said.

The accused later fished out the body, burnt it to destroy the evidence and buried it underground near the creek, the official said.

After the arrest of four members of the gang and their interrogation, the police got to know about the disposal of the body which was later exhumed.

Deshmukh was arrested in 2022 from Goa and some of his other associates were also nabbed subsequently, the police said.

Koli and the other accused were charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were also imposed against them, the police said.

Koli, who is the 17th accused in the case, was on the run and kept changing his locations as he moved from one district to another in the state.

Acting on a tip-off that he was scheduled to come to Ghavangaon in Uran, the police laid a trap on Saturday and nabbed him as he arrived there, the official said.

He was produced before a local court on Sunday which remanded him in police custody till March 7, the official added. (With inputs from PTI)