MUMBAI: A 55-year-old man, Khan Baba, was arrested on Monday for raping a tribal girl (17). The police, last week, arrested Shakuntala Rao (50), who is the girl’s aunt, and her husband, Prabhakar (45). The couple, residents of Filterpada in Powai, had forced the victim to drink spiked alcohol and then let Khan rape her.

On July 5, the girl escaped the custody of her aunt, who was taking her to Andheri to “buy new clothes”. ‘‘The girl took a train from Andheri to go to Virar when an NGO activist spotted her. On inquiring, she narrated the story to the activist, who then helped her lodge a complaint,” said Powai police senior inspector Y L Jadhav. The police nabbed Shakuntala and Prabhakar, who is a friend of Khan, the same day.

During the probe, it was revealed that the girl, two months ago, eloped to Thane with a youth, who rescued her from her alcoholic father. He raped the girl repeatedly after promising marriage and later left her. She then went to her aunt’s home towards June-end.

“Prabhakar mentioned about the girl to Khan, who offered Rs 1,000 to have a sexual relationship with her. On July 4, the couple let Khan rape her. The three planned to earn money by pushing the girl into prostitution,” said an investigator.

At the time of going to press, the police was in Thane looking for the youth who had first raped the victim. Khan has been remanded in police custody till July 12. The couple will be produced before a court on Tuesday after completion of their three-day custody.

