Accused of raping six minor girls in Bhopal in the past few years, a 68-year-old man was arrested from a hotel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar on Wednesday. “He was arrested with the help of J&K Police,” said Irshad Wali, deputy inspector general of police (DIG), Bhopal.
The accused, living in Shahpura locality in Bhopal, was a state government accredited journalist and was allotted a government bungalow. Five of the six girls lodged FIR against the man who had been absconding since Sunday.
The five teenagers were spotted in an intoxicated state by a police patrol team in Ratibad area of Bhopal in the wee hours of Sunday. During counselling by Childline, the girls narrated their ordeal and said the accused repeatedly raped them in the past few years. Later on Monday, one more minor girl came forward and registered a case of rape against him, said the police.
The state government later cancelled the accreditation of the accused and also the allotment of bungalow to him, according to additional director at Directorate of Public Relations (DPR) Mangla Prasad Mishra.
A joint team of district administration, Bhopal municipal corporation (BMC) and police razed a marriage hall and a three-storey apartment owned by the man in the city. The buildings were allegedly built by him illegally on government land, according to administrative authorities.
The man faces three FIRs lodged at Shahpura, Koh-e-Fiza and Shyamla Hills police stations under sections 366 (a) (procuration of minor girls), 376 (2) (n) (repeated rape), 120 b (criminal conspiracy) and sections 5/6 and 14 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Wildlife Protection Act and under relevant sections of SC/ST (Prevention of atrocities) Act, said the DIG of police.
“Police got the information that accused, who owns properties in Dubai, is trying to leave India. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Bhopal Police left for Delhi via train on Tuesday night and reached Srinagar from Delhi by a flight on Wednesday. They arrested him from a hotel. The police team will return to Bhopal on Thursday,” said Wali.
The police also raided the flat where he took the girls and raped them. The police said that the flat’s walls had obscene pictures of women. The police also said that they have also found stuff related to child pornography. “At least 100 Indian made foreign liquor bottles were also seized from the flat,” said Sai Krishna Thota, Superintendent of Police, Bhopal (South).
As of now, four people, including two women who worked as his aides and lured and shifted the girls from one place to another, have been arrested, the police said.
The man, who runs a small vernacular newspaper, owns luxurious cars. Police also found papers of illegally encroached government land at 12 different places worth crores of rupees, as per an official who is a part of the investigation team.
