Man arrested for raping 21-year-old stepdaughter

Horrors of sexual predation within the family continue to come to light. The Goregaon police arrested a 28-year-old man on last afternoon for raping his 21-year-old stepdaughter on two occasions. The police said he had been married to the victim's 37-year-old mother for the past six years. After the girl's parents got separated in 2004, the victim had been staying with her father in Pune. In 2005, when her mother got married to the accused, she called her to Mumbai to stay with them in their Goregaon (W) house.

The accused was arrested yesterday and will be produced in court todayu00a0

An officer from Goregaon police station said that taking advantage of the mother's absence, the accused raped the victim twice, in October and January. He had threatened the girl of dire consequences if she said anything to her mother. But on April 9, she told her mother of the repeated rapes after which they approached the police and registered a case against him. When the accused learnt that his wife had lodged a complaint against him, he fled the area.

On April 22, the victim informed the police that the accused had called her on her mobile and asked her to meet so they could settle the matter outside the police station. He asked her to meet him near a hotel on SV Road in Goregaon, where he would come in an auto rickshaw and take her to a diner to talk. "We asked the girl to tell the accused that she would not get into the rickshaw with him but that they could go to a restaurant nearby and talk," said Police Inspector Sunil Kalgutkar from Goregaon police station.u00a0

At 2 pm yesterday, the police laid a trap near the diner and nabbed the accused when he arrived to meet the victim. He was arrested under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (2) (threatening) of the Indian Penal Code. Police will present him in court today.

Neighbour booked for rape after 16-yr-old's pregnancy
After a Goregaon-based 16-year-old's pregnancy became public on Sunday, a rape complaint was filed in Pune against her neighbour with whom she was in a relationship. The Oshiwara police said that the complaint was transferred to them on Monday as the crime occurred in their area of jurisdiction.

According to the Oshiwara police, the girl and the neighbour live at Bhagat Singh Nagar in Goregaon (W). The duo was in an intimate relationship for the past few months and the girl got pregnant. After her mother learnt of her pregnancy, she took her to an ashram in Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune, where she had been living for the past five months.

After authorities at the ashram noticed the girl's condition, they confronted her. On Sunday, she confessed to them that she was pregnant with her neighbour's child, following which a rape complaint was registered against him at MIDC Bosari, a Pune-based police station. u00a0