A 45-year-old man has been arrested in Vikhroli (west) for allegedly raping a minor girl on the pretext of finding his missing daughter who was her friend. The rape took place in an open garden in the western suburbs.
According to an official from Parksite police station, the accused Ramroop Ramdev Pasi and the victim Rita (name changed) are residents of a slum area in Parksite. Rita who just turned 17, was friends with Pasi’s daughter Rekha (name changed).
On June 12, Pasi’s daughter Rekha reportedly eloped with her boyfriend and he had registered a missing complaint with the Sakinaka police station.
A missing persons case was registered with the Sakinaka police as Rekha had left her residence on the pretext of going to her office in Sakinaka.
Pasi asked Rita to help him find his daughter. Rita agreed to go with him. However, Pasi took her to Powai gardens and raped her around 10 am, the police said.
“The watchman of the garden who witnessed the incident alerted the local police. As Rita is a minor, we registered a rape case without inquiring whether the incident was consensual or not,” said a police officer. The police has registered a case of rape. He has been remanded in police custody for further investigation.
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Freeway remains blocked till noon, irks commuters
AGE CORRESPONDENT
MUMBAI, JUNE 14
Several commuters were left angry and disappointed on Friday morning when they found that the freshly-inaugurated Eastern Freeway was still unusable. The entry and exit points of the freeway were blocked as a rain-proof pandal used for the chief minister’s inauguration on Thursday could not be removed on time. The remnants of the pandal was finally moved out close to noon.
“We required two cranes, 100 workers and 17 rainy hours to remove the rain-proof pandal which was erected for the inauguration. As soon as we removed it, the freeway was opened to the public,” said Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director, MMRDA.
This delay was, however, enough to cause trouble for motorists who thought it would be a good idea to take the freeway. “I reached Bhakti Park to take my family on the freeway as I thought it would be a nice way to enjoy the monsoons. We had to return disappointed,” said Pankaj Kamble. Yadubansh Singh, another motorist, reacted sharply, “Ministers and bureaucrats have no regard left for the aam aadmi, who are always left in the lurch. There was no need to waste public money and set up a big pandal in the first place.”