Representative image of being abducted.
Credit: iStock Photo
Kota: A 25-year-old man befriended a minor medical aspirant on social media by hiding his religious identity and age, and abducted her from her hostel in Rajasthan’s Kota, police said on Thursday.
The accused, identified as Lucknow resident Mohammed Rajak, has been arrested and booked for kidnapping and wrongful confinement under sections of BNS and Juvenile Justice Act and sent to judicial custody on Wednesday, they said.
The girl has been rescued, the police added.
The 15-year-old girl, a native of Bihar, was preparing for NEET in Kota while living in a hostel, they said.
The girl revealed that Rajak introduced him as 18- year-old Aadi from Lucknow on Instagram and befriended her around six months ago. Since then she had been in contact with him on social media, CWC chairperson Rajendra Singh Rathod told on Thursday.
The accused reached Kota by a hired cab earlier last week and lured the girl into leaving Kota with him. On July 11, they left for Lucknow by cab, Rathod said.
On the way, the girl got suspicious of the youth when he made her switch off her mobile and crushed her SIM card into pieces. The girl grew more suspicious when she heard him speaking to someone on call in a different dialect, the CWC chairperson said.
Stunned with revelation, the girl somehow managed to get Rajak’s phone and called her sister, who asked her to immediately reach the nearest police station, he said.
Meanwhile, in Kota the girl's hostel caretaker registered a case of kidnapping the same day the accused with the girl had left Kota, the police said.
Taking serious note of the matter, the City SP formed three teams that tracked the cab owner and its driver within hours after the report and convinced the driver to reach the nearest police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi, Kundadi Circle Inspector Arvind Bhardwaj said.
At Jhansi police station, Rajak was arrested and the minor was taken into custody and was produced before CWC on Sunday on basis of statements during counselling, he said.
The accused was produced before court on Wednesday and sent to judicial custody, he added.