(Representational Image) (Representational Image)

A 57-year-old man was arrested last week for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl and video recording the act. Officers from J J Marg police station said the accused allegedly circulated the video among his friends.

The accused, Afzal Qureshi, runs a video game parlour in south Mumbai. According to the police, he saw the girl playing near his shop and called her inside. An officer from J J Marg police station said: “Qureshi started the video camera on his mobile phone and forced himself on the girl. The accused even threatened her with dire consequences if she spoke to anyone about the incident.” The investigators are yet to ascertain the date of the incident.

On November 4, a case was registered after the girl’s family members saw the video. “Qureshi sent it to his friends and he kept the memory card of the phone inside a drawer in his shop. A local resident who needed the memory card started looking for it in the shop in Qureshi’s absence. He found it and inserted it in his phone,” said an officer. After the person saw the video, he showed it to the girl’s parents.

Qureshi, who has a wife and two children, fled to Uttarakhand and had been hiding in a mosque since then, the police said. Recently, a police team traced his location and caught him.

The investigators checked passenger lists of long-distance trains and after spotting his name in a Delhi train list, they verified the information with co-passengers. “We checked if he got off in Delhi or somewhere in the middle. Then we contacted Qureshi’s relatives and asked them to inform us about him,” said an officer.

The accused had called one of his relatives following which a police team was sent to Kotdwar in Uttarakhand and the accused was arrested.

Qureshi has been booked under sections of the Indian penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. He was produced in a court and remanded in judicial custody.

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