Thane:
A 35-year-old man from Vasai in Thane district was arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl, police said today.
The accused, Rajesh Vishwakarma, a resident of the same Boidapada locality in Vasai where the 11-year-old victim lived, went to her house on Thursday, when her parents were not at home and asked her to cook food for him as his wife had not done so, inspector Narayan Patil said.
He locked the house from inside and made advances towards the girl. However, the girl, and her friend who was present in the house, managed to run away from the house and took shelter at a grocery shop, he said.
The accused followed them and dragged the girl to an empty room near an ashram where he raped her, police said.
Later, based on a complaint by the girl who went to the police station along with her parents, police nabbed the accused.
Vishwakarma has been charged under sections 376 (rape), 354(a)(1) with 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) of IPC, section 3(2)(1) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act and sections 4 and 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, police said.