21 June,2023 02:10 PM IST | Thane | mid-day online correspondent
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A 31-year-old man on the run after allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in 2019 was arrested from Bhayandar in Thane district of Maharashtra, the police said on Wednesday, reported the PTI.
The man was arrested for the crime after four years of being on the run, the police said according to the PTI.
A case of rape and kidnapping was registered against the man on March 4, 2019, days after the teenage girl went missing from her home in Mira Road locality. The Police also added sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Child Marriage Restraint Act as the accused married the victim, reported the PTI.
The girl was later traced by the police and reunited with her parents but the accused went absconding, a police official told the PTI.
The police received a tip-off that the accused had been living in Bhayandar and arrested him two days back, he said.
Meanwhile, in an another incident, the Latur Police on June 18 said that an 18-year-old woman was allegedly repeatedly raped by a man in Latur city, according to the PTI.
Based on the woman's complaint, the police arrested the accused, a 19-year-old man, the police had said.
The suspect allegedly committed the crime between April and June this year, the police said citing the complaint.
"The woman, who came to Latur for education, stayed at a hostel. The accused, who hails from Solapur, befriended the victim and lured her into keeping a relationship with him. He took her to a lodge and clicked her objectionable photos there. He then started blackmailing her by threatening to post the pictures on social media," an official of Shivaji Nagar police station had told the PTI on Sunday.
The man then sexually assaulted her several times. Fed up with his constant torture, the victim finally mustered courage and approached the police, he said.
She lodged a complaint, based on which the police registered a first information report (FIR) under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or use of criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage her modesty), and the Information Technology Act.
A local court has remanded him in police custody till Monday, he said.
(with PTI inputs)
