A 13-year-old girl was abducted and molested by a 21-year-old man who took her to a village in Bhiwandi tehsil of Thane district in Maharashtra, police said, adding the accused was arrested and the girl rescued.

The girl was abducted from Vishnu Nagar in Dombivli, also in Thane district, on September 20, following which a case was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a police release said. Police traced the accused, Akshay Patil, to Kahler village in Bhiwandi. He was arrested in Thane. The girl was rescued from the village on September 23 and handed over to her parents.