Palghar police have taken both the accused in custody (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: BCCL

Palghar: City police on Friday arrested two minor boys for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl near a village in the Mokhada taluka here. Officials familiar with the matter said that the boys, both 17-years-old are students at a local school and have now been detained on the basis of a complaint registered by the girl's parents.

In her complaint to the police, the girl has alleged that she was intercepted by the accused when she was on her way back home after visiting a bank on Friday. A village near Mokhada taluka where the incident took place is a tribal-dominated area.

Sub-inspector of the Jawhar police station Rakesh Pagare told news agency PTI that the two boys stopped their motorcycle upon seeing the girl and asked her where she was heading. The accused then dragged her to a set of nearby bushes where they allegedly raped her before fleeing the scene of the crime, added Pagare.

The matter came to light when the girl returned home and narrated her ordeal before her parents who took her to the police and filed a complaint. Acting on the accusations, Palghar police managed to detain the two accused boys by Friday evening and has charged them with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

In September of this month, citizens of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra organised a silent protest outside the Collectorate's officer seeking justice for a 10-year-old girl who abducted and raped by her 24-year-old neighbour. Protestors demanded that the accused, Latif Syed be punished for his crime by a fast-track court.

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