Four held for gangrape of minor in Mahisagar

Vadodara: Four persons were arrested on Saturday for raping a 16-year-old girl at a village in Lunawada taluka in Mahisagar district on May 13.

The four accused — Mahesh Maliwad, Vikram Maliwad, Sanjay Maliwad and Chhatra Maliwad — had attacked the girl when she went to dump cattle dung near her house on the evening of May 13. The four dragged her to a nearby maize farm where they allegedly gang-raped her. Police said that before fleeing the four accused had threatened the girl to not tell anyone about the assault.

However, on reaching home, the girl informed her parents and they went to Lunawada police station where an offence of rape, criminal intimidation and violation of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered.

“Initially, the offence was registered against only one person and the names of three other accused were not mentioned in the FIR. When the members of the girl’s community learnt about it, they met the superintendent of police and got the names added,” said the girl’s advocate Narendra Parmar. Sections of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were also added later, Parmar added.

On Saturday, cops detained all four of them from their homes. “Their coronavirus test and medical check-up was done on Saturday. We will formally arrest them after their test results will arrive,” said deputy superintendent of police (SC/ST cell) D P Bhatt.