The accused Sashwin Nishad was nabbed through CCTV footages.

SURAT: Crime branch and local police teams have nabbed a 26-year-old man on Friday from Sachin GIDC area for alleged rape and sexual assault to a four-year-old minor. The accused was nabbed through CCTV footages. Cops got success in detecting the case on fifth day after the crime was reported.

Police picked up the accused Sashwin Nishad, a labour, during early hours on Friday. He is being questioned at crime branch to gather accurate details of the crime. Police are collecting evidences against the accused to make a strong case, said a police officer.

The accused is married and father of a son. Employee of a textile weaving unit Nishad had changed jobs frequently and that delayed his arrest, sources in police informed. Police were checking at industrial units with sketch and CCTV grab of the suspect but due to habit of changing workplace in short time very few people knew him at work.

Police also carried out door to door checking in the locality of Sachin GIDC police station limits but the accused could not be identified.

Meanwhile, police did reverse tracking of the CCTV camera footages in which the suspect was seen talking with some men. Of them police tracked one and during his questioning police collected details of the accused.

“Police have nabbed the accused and we were looking for him. Due to city police’s hard work we cracked the case,” said R B Brahmbhatt, city police commissioner.

The survivor was with her father when she was kidnapped from a ground around 50 meters away from her home around 11.45 pm on Sunday. They went to see Ramlila and the father went to take aarti for a couple of minutes when the minor was kidnapped. The accused took her into bushes at a nearby location and sexually assaulted her. She was subjected to unnatural sex as well. The family searched for her till 2.30 am, but failed. The minor returned home on her own around 4 am.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

