Following the death of a girl — an autorickshaw driver had allegedly tried to strangle her after raping her in her house on Saturday night— a mob of local people on Monday gathered outside Goregaon West police station demanding that he be handed over to them.

The mob had assembled apparently with the intention of lynching Vilas Laxman Aamrale (41), the autorickshaw driver arrested on Saturday night for allegedly sexually assaulting and attempting to murder the 17-year-old girl. The charges against him have been amended to sexual assault and murder after the girl died in a hospital on Monday morning.

The mob reached the police station in the afternoon. Police managed to defuse the tension and crowd dispersed after some time. “The mob assembled at Goregaon police station on Monday afternoon demanding that Aamrale, a rape and murder accused, be handed over to them. It seemed the mob had gathered to lynch Aamrale. After I got to know about the gathering of the mob, I deployed police officials and reached the spot. After convincing the mob that the victims’ family would get justice, we managed to pacify the crowd,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 11, Sanjay Bannerjee.

“The accused man and the girl had been into a relationship for the past one year. However, a few days ago, they had a dispute after which she refused to speak to him,” said Senior Police Inspector, S Paithankar , of the Goregaon police station.

Apparently enraged at this, an inebriated Aamrale allegedly barged into the victim's house at Jawhar Nagar on Saturday night when her parents, both vegetable vendors, were out.

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