A 20-year-old man, locally known as Kasab because of his resemblance to the 26/11 terrorist, was arrested by the Colaba police on Tuesday night for allegedly kidnapping and molesting a 14-year-old girl
A 20-year-old man, locally known as Kasab because of his resemblance to the 26/11 terrorist, was arrested by the Colaba police last night for allegedly kidnapping and molesting a 14-year-old girl.
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The girl, a Std 9 student of a south Mumbai school, was friends with the accused, Rizwan Siddique, and was part of his group of friends who hung around till late at night. The girl and her mother used to have frequent arguments over this.
The girl’s mother (33), in her statement to the police, said, “My daughter had befriended a group of boys older than her and this was distracting her from her studies. We had argued about this a few times and on one occasion she told me it was her life and she wanted to live it as she pleased. I kept warning her against keeping bad company. On September 30, her aunt saw her dancing with the same boys at a dandiya function. When she tried to question her she replied rudely and walked away. I scolded her over the incident and she left home on October 1.”
Rizwan Siddique
The family looked everywhere for the girl. On October 2, the mother visited a locality where two boys from the group lived and learnt that her daughter had stayed over at one of the boys’ houses and had left with Rizwan for CST around 5.30am that day. The mother then registered an FIR in the matter, the police said.
On Tuesday evening, the police arrested Rizwan and he has been remanded in police custody till October 7. Three others are yet to be caught.
Rizwan’s lawyer, Sunil Pandey, denied all allegations, and said, “They were friends and the girl was upset with her parents. Rizwan helped her with shelter not knowing that he would be booked and later arrested by the police for helping the girl. He has been falsely implicated.”
“In the matter, an FIR under sections 363,354 and 34 of the IPC and sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was registered and the first arrest was made the following day,” said a police officer from Colaba police station.
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