Four people arrested for five-month rape of three minor sisters | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: Four criminals, who allegedly kidnapped three minor daughters of an alcoholic and raped them repeatedly over a period of five months, were arrested by the Nalasopara police on Sunday. The girls, aged 17, 16 and 15, were produced before the Child Welfare Committee and sent to a children’s home for rehabilitation.

According to police, the girls lived with their parents in Nalasopara. “Their father worked as a security guard. He was an alcoholic and regularly abused their mother. So she ran away from home, leaving the three teenage daughters alone,” said a police officer.

The girls too had enough of their father’s violent behaviour and were allegedly kidnapped by the main accused Datta Shirsagar about five months ago, police said. Shirsagar and his three accomplices – Mohammed Ibrahim, 24, Nishad Khan, 19, and Sayyed Khan, 20 – then raped the girls repeatedly.

On Sunday, the girls’ father reported them missing to the police and a case was registered. After an informant tipped off the police that the girls had been seen with Shirsagar, who had been released from jail on bail, they raided the accused’s house in Nalasopara East and found the three minor girls there.

“We rescued the girls and sent them for a medical examination, which revealed that the 17-year-old girl was pregnant,” the official said.

After the girls narrated their ordeal, the police registered a fresh case against Shirsagar and his three accomplices under sections 340 (wrongful confinement), 376 (rape) and 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and the corresponding sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. All four accused were subsequently arrested.

Meanwhile, in Goregaon, a priest was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl on June 12. The girl’s mother had seen the priest, identified as Shivam Pandey, touching her inappropriately after asking her to enter the temple where he was working through the back entrance. She then alerted the other devotees, who called the police and got the priest arrested.