The Panvel City police arrested a 26-year-old autorickshaw driver for allegedly raping a 20-year-old girl by threatening to kill her within 12 hours of the incident. The incident took place on December 27 morning and the accused arrested by the evening.
Police said that the girl who hails from Chhattisgarh had come to the city alone to celebrate Christmas and New Year.
The arrested accused identified as Sachin Lalta Prasad Sharma, a resident of Panvel in Raigad district. A case was registered under section 376 and 596 (2) of IPC at Panvel City police station.
According to police, the girl asked the auto-rickshaw driver at Panvel station to drop her near Gandhi Garden on December 27 morning. However, the accused Sharma took her near crematorium in Koliwada instead of Gandhi Garden. “Sharma threatened to kill her by stone lying there and forcefully he raped her,” said Ajay Landge, senior police inspector from Panvel City police station. He added that based on the CCTV footage and technical investigation led to the arrest of the accused from a slum.
During the investigation, the police found that the girl is from Chhattisgarh and she had gone to Delhi from Jharkhand. She also stayed one day in Delhi. And then, she took Paschim Express at Delhi station and reached Bandra on December 22. However, soon after she reached Bandra station, she was caught by the TTE as she was travelling without a valid ticket.
The railways handed over the girl to the Child helpline from where she was sent to Sakhi Centre, home for women in crisis. But after investigation, she was let off from there.
Landge says that she was saying that she has a relative in Panvel and also provided an address. However, there is no one there. “We have got his native place address and contacted a shop where she was working,” said Landge.
According to police, she had also spent a day with one person called Shiva. She had met with him at Panvel station. However, the next day the incident happened when she was going near Gandhi Garden.
