Representative image of arrest.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: After allegedly forcing a 19-year-old girl to marry him, a man and four of his associates were arrested by the Subramanyapura police after they had kidnapped her. The police successfully conducted the rescue operation within 12 hours of the offence being reported.
According to the police, on October 8, at around 5.15 pm, the prime suspect, Ranganath alias Ranga, 23, along with his associates, forcibly entered the victim’s house in Simhadri Layout, Chikkalasandra, with weapons. The victim and her mother were having tea.
The suspects grabbed the 19-year-old girl, a first-year Chartered Accounting (CA) student, and began dragging her out.
When her mother, a house help, and her grandmother tried to intervene, the suspects swung the machetes at them, scaring them and slightly injuring them. The suspects then fled the spot in an autorickshaw and a two-wheeler.
Shortly, a complaint was filed by the Subramanyapura police. Two teams of investigators were immediately formed. “Different modes of investigation, including CCTV analysis and other technical investigations, led us to trace the suspects within 12 hours,” a police investigator told DH.
All five suspects confessed to the crime, and the victim was rescued unharmed. Investigations revealed that the prime suspect, Ranganath, was a mechanic and was previously jailed in a murder case. After his release, he began pestering the girl, who was staying near his house, to marry her. A month ago, he had allegedly created a ruckus outside the girl’s house twice, asking her to marry him.
Police have booked Ranganath and his associates Rajesh B (26), Chandan (23), Shreyas (30) and Manjunath (20) under BNS Sections 78 (Stalking), 87 (Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage), 118(1) (Voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 189(2) (Unlawful assembly), 329(4) (Criminal trespass and house trespass) and 351(2) (Criminal intimidation). All suspects have been remanded in judicial custody, the police said.