After minor dies in Pune’s Hinjewadi rape case, 22-year-old student and teen held in custody on Pocso charges
The duo were arrested after one of the victims, a Class 6 student, who slipped into coma, succumbed late on Wednesday.
The two accused of raping two minor girls, one of whom succumbed to injuries suffered at the Sassoon hospital, were produced before judicial authorities on Thursday.
The two minor girls, who were allegedly raped by a man and a 16-year-old boy on September 16, were first taken to an isolated place in Hinjewadi when the girls were visiting a temple on Sunday afternoon, police said.
“It was a Sunday and they had gone to the (Sant Tukaram Maharaj) temple which is three-four km from their house. The two approached the girls and offered them chocolates and led them to the bushes,” assistant police inspector Sapna Devtale of Hinjewadi police station said.
A Pune court remanded 22-year-old Ganesh Nikam to five days police custody while the juvenile was sent to the observation home in Yerawada.
“We have to check whether anyone else was involved in the case. We have to put him through medical tests and other procedural things that are essential to the probe,” said API Devtale.
The duo were arrested after one of the victims, a Class 6 student, who slipped into coma, succumbed late on Wednesday.
Accused ‘met’ two minors several days before the crime
The man and a minor booked for sexual assault of two minor girls, one of whom died in Sassoon General Hospital, had established contact with the girls several days before the incident. The two had given them chocolates to entice them, according to Pimpri-Chinchwad police commissioner RK Padmanabhan.
The girls used to go to a local school near their houses on the outskirts of Hinjewadi. On Sunday, which is a school holiday, the two walked to Sant Tukaram Maharaj temple where the boy and Nikam met them. The police will be investigating whether the two accused followed the girls to the temple.
Meanwhile, Nikam’s father spoke to him briefly on the court premises and asked him to “keep faith” as he “did not commit the crime”. But later, he refused to acknowledge his relation with his son.