Teen girl robbed of phone, raped at railway yard near Mumbai; CCTV trail helps GRP nab accused

KALYAN: A 21-year-old jobless man has been arrested for allegedly coercing a 14 year-old girl into accompanying him to the secluded and dimly lit Kalyan railway yard and raping her.

GRP officials said the girl, a resident of Ahilyanagar, arrived at Kalyan on Saturday and was waiting at a platform around 5pm to catch a train to Khopoli, where her uncle resides. In her complaint, she said the accused, Saurabh Sonawane, befriended her and mid-conversation, snatched her phone. When she pleaded for it, he allegedly intimidated her and said she must accompany him to the Kalyan GRP station to retrieve it. However, he instead took her to the yard, where he allegedly assaulted her.

Kalyan Government Railway Police (GRP), in a joint operation with Railway Crime Branch, tracked down and arrested Sonawane within hours of the crime after scanning CCTV footage of the platforms and yard area and identifying him.

The GRP have booked Sonawane under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Pandarinath Kande, senior police inspector of Kalyan GRP, said, “The accused is unemployed and has a previous case of assault registered against him at Kolsewadi police station.”

Saturday’s incident has once again trained the spotlight on the abysmal state of passenger safety, especially for women and minors, within railway premises. In June 2011, a 17-year-old girl was raped by three unidentified men on Kalyan station premises in the presence of her male friend, who was held hostage at knife-point.


(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)