Representative image

SURAT: Sachin police arrested a 28-year-old man , who is a resident of Ahmedabad , for allegedly abducting and raping a 15-year-old girl on Saturday. The girl told police that she was abducted by a woman on August 12 from Sachin area of the city and sold to the father of the accused for Rs 70,000.

After tracing the accused through human and electronic surveillance, police raided his house at Saijpur in Ahmedabad and rescued the survivor. Police arrested Harish Solanki from the house where the minor girl was held captive for the last four months. An offence of abduction of the girl was registered at Sachin police station on August 22 by the cops and investigation begun.

“We received specific information about the minor’s location at Saijpur in Ahmedabad after which we raided the house. We arrested the accused in whose custody the girl was found,” said a police officer of Sachin police station.

Harish is a labourer and does petty jobs to earn his livelihood. Police have detained his father Ishwar, who had allegedly purchased the minor girl from an old woman in Kalol and brought her to Ahmedabad to get her married to his son, sources said. The girl was raped multiple times by Harish in his house.

“It is not yet clear if the minor is pregnant. We will be getting her medically examined. We have registered an offence of rape against Harish on the basis of the minor girl’s statement to us,” police said.

The girl informed police that she had gone to a tailor’s shop to get her clothes stitched when she was abducted by a woman from Sachin crossroads. She told police that she was made to smell something by the woman after which she lost her senses. When she woke up she found herself with an old woman, who after a few days sold her to Ishwar for Rs70,000. The rape survivor claimed that there were three other girls in the custody of the woman then.

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

