Man, 35, arrested for raping, impregnating 11-year-old girl in Badlapur

The accused was arrested from Telangana on Tuesday.

The Badlapur police have arrested a 35-year-old man in connection with the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl at a construction site in June this year. The girl, the daughter of a security guard, is reported to be pregnant.

Thane, India - August 27, 2024: Govinda is seen holding a placard calling for death sentence for the accused in the Badlapur girls sexual assault case at the Dahi Handi festival in Thane at Sanskruti yuva Pratishan Dahihandi vartak nager in Thane. ( Praful Gangurde /HT Photo )

The police were unable to locate the accused, identified as Nagesh Shande alias Naresh, for the past two months, as he had fled from Badlapur. A police team tracked him to Telangana from where he was arrested on August 27 and brought to Badlapur. He was produced in the court on August 28 which remanded him to police custody till August 31. Naresh is a repeated offender and has a case registered against him under section 307 (attempt to murder), according to the police.

HT had reported this case on August 23, when the accused was on the run and police did not have concrete information about his whereabouts. However, during this time too, the accused was using his henchmen to threaten the survivor’s family to withdraw the case. Even their home was vandalised. The scared father, who worked as a security guard at the construction site where the crime took place and where the accused worked as a building contractor, took the decision to take his family back to Nepal, their country of birth.

The 11-year-old girl was allegedly raped by the accused while she was returning home from a friend’s house. She was dragged to an isolated spot at the construction site and later threatened not to tell anyone about the rape. Only after she complained of pain, she was taken to a clinic on July 18 by her parents, where she was prescribed medicine for stomachache. But as her condition worsened, she was taken to Central Hospital in Ulhasnagar, where doctors confirmed she was five weeks pregnant. The shocked family then reported the incident to the police on July 20, and an FIR was filed under relevant sections of IPC and POCSO.

It was then that the threats started coming, leading to the family fleeing to Nepal. In this case, too, senior police inspector Subhada Shitole’s name has surfaced. The family has claimed that despite knowing about the accused’s identity and of his threats, no arrest was made, prompting them to flee due to safety concerns. Shitole’s name is doing the rounds in the recent case of the school toilet molestation case for tardiness in the investigation. Reportedly, she was previously suspended in another case for negligence of duty.