india

Updated: Jul 21, 2019 03:55 IST

The Ghaziabad police late Friday arrested a 30-year-old man who repeatedly raped two minor girls, aged nine and 10 years, since July 14 and also threatened them against revealing the assault to anyone.

The police said families of the two girls approached them on July 18 and gave a complaint after which the suspect, Subhash Yadav, a fruit seller, was booked for rape and also under the provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act at Link Road police station.

According to police, Yadav is known to the mother of one of the girls. The girls are neighbours and residents of a locality under the jurisdiction of Link Road police station. The police said Yadav on July 14, went to the house of the nine-year-old girl and her friend, aged 10 years, was also there with her. Yadav allegedly lured the girls to the vegetable market on pretext of treating them to chowmein.

“He took them to his accommodation in the vegetable market he raped them one by one and later threatened them with a knife and told them not to reveal the incident to anyone, else he would kill them. He later dropped the girls back home. On July 15, he went to their house to check if the girls had revealed anything to their parents. But seeing their family members behave normally, he became assured that the girls had kept quiet about the incident,” a police officer from Link Road police station said.

On July 16, Yadav again went to the house of the nine-year-old girl and asked her to call the other girl over.

“He was drunk at that time. He raped the nine-year-old girl again and she fainted during the assault. Seeing her friend unconscious, the other girl ran out and raised the alarm. The suspect then fled the spot and neighbours arrived to help the girls. Thereafter, the girls’ family members decided to approach police after the girls narrated their ordeal,” the officer said.

The police said Yadav knew that parents of both girls go out every day for work and the girls would be by themselves at home. Based on their parents’ complaint, the police registered an FIR against Yadav and arrested him late Friday. He is a fruit trader at Sahibabad vegetable market and is married with two minor sons.

“The mother of one of the two girls was known to Yadav and he often visited their home. Finding the two girls by themselves, he had lured them away and raped them. The man was arrested and sent to judicial custody after being produced before a court,” Shlok Kumar, superintendent of police (city), said.

The police said the girls’ statements, under 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code, have been recorded. They were also sent for a medical examination and will be taken to the court to give their statements before a magistrate, the police said.