Two sailors and a civilian stand accused of repeatedly raping the minor daughter of a senior Navy officer, while another sailor has been booked for molesting the 14-year-old

Two sailors and a civilian stand accused of repeatedly raping the minor daughter of a senior Navy officer, while another sailor has been booked for molesting the 14-year-old. The Cuffe Parade police have arrested three people in the case.

The three sailors have been identified as Prithvi Chauhan, Pawan alias Om Pal (31), a cook, and Rakesh Singh. The civilian has been identified as Jeetendra Singh (24), a contractor by profession. According to the police, it was Rakesh Singh who first got to know the girl; he had noticed her while she would go to attend tuition classes, and gifted her a phone.

Prithvi got her number from Rakesh and began chatting with her. He would speak to the girl regularly, and once called her to the terrace, where he asked her to get physically involved with him. When the girl refused, Prithvi told her he had recordings of all their phone conversations and that he would make her father listen to them if she didn’t do as she was told. He then raped her.

Then, Om Pal and Jeetendra got her phone number from Prithvi, and raped her by threatening to tell her father about her ‘physical relationship’ with Prithvi. The rapes began in June and the three accused raped the teenager in different places. On July 18, the parents of the girl saw Om Pal coming out of their house.

When they asked their daughter why he was in their house, she told her parents about what she had been going through. The parents went to the Cuffe Parade police station and the mother registered a case.

Jeetendra and Om Pal were arrested in the morning yesterday and booked under Sections 376 C (i), 354 D, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with relevant sections from the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act, 2012. They were produced in a Special POCSO court and remanded in police custody till July 27.

Rakesh was arrested in the evening yesterday and booked under Sections 354 D and 34 of the IPC, and also under the POCSO Act. He will be produced in court today. Sunil Rohokale, police inspector, Cuffe Parade police station, said, “We have arrested three people for now. Investigations are going on.” The fourth sailor, Prithvi, who has been booked for rape, among other sections, is on duty outside Mumbai and has been asked to report to Mumbai for investigations.

Navy speak

An official statement from the Navy read, “The father of a girl child has lodged a complaint with the police on Sunday, July 19, 2015, against four persons for individually, over the last few months, molesting and sexually assaulting his daughter.

One of the four has been identified as a civilian and three are Naval sailors. Full cooperation has been extended by the Naval Provost Marshal, INS Kunjali, to the police in the investigation, and one civilian (an MES employee) and two sailors have been handed over to the police on Monday, July 20, 2015.

The third sailor is presently on duty outside Mumbai and has been asked to report back to Mumbai for the police investigation. Full assistance is being provided by authorities of Western Naval Command to the police in the conduct of the investigation.”