After multiple trips across the border since September last year, a six-member team from the Chengamanad police eventually nabbed a man accused of sexually abusing a minor girl.
The accused was identified as Muhammad Ashraf, 20, of Ratnapur in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. When he was nabbed from Ramanujavaram village in Khammam district of Telangana on July 23, it was the team’s fourth such visit across the border in his pursuit.
Though his accomplices tried to fend off the police action, the team eventually managed to surmount the resistance and nab the accused. The team was formed by District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena after the 14-year-old girl, originally from Assam, went missing from the Chengamanad police station limits last September.
It soon emerged that she had acquainted with the accused over social media. At that time, he was working as a construction worker in Munnar. According to the police, the accused lured her into eloping with him to West Bengal where she was allegedly sexually abused.
The police team rescued the girl during their first visit to West Bengal in the same month. However, the accused managed to flee by then. Since then, he had lived in hiding in Malda in West Bengal and Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra. Though the team had been to these places as well, they could not trace him.
Eventually, the team received information that the accused was hiding in Ramanujavaram. The team in disguise turned up in the village and trapped him in his hiding place. Among other charges, the accused was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The team comprised inspector Sony Mathai, sub inspectors P.K. Balachandran and P.A. Thomas, and senior civil police officers K.B. Salin Kumar, K.R. Rahul, and M.S. Siju.
Published - July 26, 2024 01:31 am IST
