Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), May 31: Police have arrested a 25-year-old man for raping a minor Dalit girl in Moradabad district in the most populated North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
The local police said that the accused has been identified as one Vinyamin, son of Shukur. The victim, a student of Class VIII in Kundarki area, had stepped out of her house on Thursday morning to use the toilet. At that time, the accused forcibly took her inside his shop at gunpoint and raped the victim.
On realising that the victim was missing, the family members began searching for her. They chanced upon her screams from outside a locked shop. The family members knocked on the door repeatedly while the accused managed to flee the crime scene by waving his gun in the air.
They found the victim lying in a semi-conscious state. The Dalit girl informed them that she was raped by the accused. She also said that the accused threatened to kill her when she screamed for help.
Police sent the victim for a medical examination. The police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 376 (rape) and relevant provisions of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
According to the police, the girl is a minor, who studies in a school in the area, while the accused Vinyamin is around 25-year-old and runs a furniture shop. The police inspected the spot in the presence of the girl’s family and have gathered evidence from the village. Multiple teams were deployed to locate the accused.
The police have also deployed additional teams in the area to maintain law and order as a precautionary measure owing to the rape of a minor Dalit girl by a perpetrator of another community.
Later in the day police located Vinyamin, arrested him, and produced him before a local court. The development was confirmed by Station Officer Sandeep Kumar. Reportedly, the accused is a resident of Haryana and a carpenter by occupation.