Minor kidnaps, molests 7-yr-old

The police on Thursday arrested a 17-year-old boy from Mahim for kidnapping a seven-year-old girl and molesting her.u00a0He was arrested and remanded to a children's home. The accused had allegedly sexually assaulted the child on several occasions since January.

The victim eventually told her mother about the sexual harassment she had gone through, after which a complaint was registered at Mahim police station. According to DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni (Zone V) the accused lived in the same locality in Mahim as the victim. He lured her on some pretext to an isolated location in the area and violated her. On several occasions that followed, she was victimised by the accused, who threatened her of dire consequences if she talked to anyone about what he did to her.

But the sustained abuse forced her to reveal the crimes she had been a victim of to her mother. The mother took her child to Mahim police station where a case was registered, following which cops nabbed the accused on Thursday. An officer from Mahim police station said, "The arrested accused has been booked under section 363 (kidnapping) and 354 (assault or criminal force on woman) of the Indian Penal Code."u00a0