Man held for raping his 15-year-old niece

The police have arrested a man from Jalgaon in North Maharashtra for allegedly repeatedly raping his 15-year-old mentally challenged niece and impregnating her, an official said on Friday.

The accused later abandoned her at Kalyan railway station in Thane district, he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police of Zone III Vivek Pansare said the victim was found at Kalyan station on May 29, 2019.

The girl, who was mentally challenged, was unable to reveal her identity, and just informed the police that she was from Jalgaon, around 400km from here, and is five months pregnant, he said.

The Mahatma Fule Chowk Police in Kalyan then registered an offence under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

After five months of tracking missing person reports, electoral rolls and Aadhaar cards from Jalgaon, the police zeroed in on the information that the girl may be from the Hatkar community, Pansare said.

Further probe revealed the girl was from Kurha, in Jalgaon's Muktainagar, and was living with her paternal aunt and her husband.

The police arrested her uncle on Wednesday after he confessed to raping the victim on several occasions, the senior official said.

Once the accused came to know that the victim was pregnant, he took her to Kalyan and abandoned her at the station, he added.

The CCTV footage from the station has confirmed the accused's statement.