A 15-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped and confined in a farm pit for over three weeks as she was raped repeatedly by a teenager at Kotda Nayani village of Morbi district in Gujarat before she was freed earlier this month, police said on Tuesday.
19-year-old, Naresh Solanki, was booked for rape, kidnapping and illegal confinement, while seven members of his family were booked under charges of kidnapping and illegal confinement, said a police official of Wankaner taluka police station to PTI.
The motive behind this act is said to be forced marriage. The family of the accused wanted the family of the victim to marry her to Naresh as they both belong to the same caste of ‘Devipujaks’. When the latter refused, they planned the kidnapping of the girl, police said.
According to the survivor’s version, after her abduction on November 11, she was taken to a farm about two kilometres from the village in an auto rickshaw. An 8×8 pit was dug in the farm and she was forced to sit in it. The accused covered it with wood and cement and kept one side of it open so that she could breathe.
The victim would only be taken out to be raped, which went on for over three weeks before she was freed by her father and others in the village on December 4.
The girl’s father had lodged a case of kidnapping against unknown persons on November 25.
After intense search, the girl was finally found on December 4, the official said, adding that based on her statement, police lodged a case against the eight accused who were subsequently arrested.
The eight persons include Naresh, his brother Haresh, father Janantbhai Solanki and his grandfather Chaturbhai Solanki, who are all currently lodged in Rajkot central jail, the police said.
Other than sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (abduction of woman to compel her into marriage) of the Indian Penal Code registered against unknown accused in the November 25 FIR, police have also added sections 376 (rape) against Naresh along with relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
