The Meghwadi police arrested a scrap dealer on Tuesday for raping a seven-year-old. On May 23, Mohammad Ashfaq allegedly took the victim to an abandoned place near the bridge between Meghwadi and Jogeshwari on the Western Express Highway and raped her. Ashfaq has been charged with rape of a minor under sections 363, 376 of the Indian Penal Code and has been remanded to police custody till June 10.

The victim is the daughter of a migrant worker from Nashik. On May 23, she disappeared and the next day, just as her parents were about to approach the police, she returned and said that she was raped.

“Ashfaq had been working with the victim’s family since 15 days but had identified himself as Kailash. He was missing since the day of incident. Initially, we made sketches of him and tried to track him. After we found out that he was a scrap dealer we inquired from the other scrap dealers in the area,” said police inspector Zungarao Gharal of the Meghwadi police. “We found someone who knew him as Ashfaq and not Kailash. He told us that Ashfaq had given a photograph to a man to make his pan card. We tracked this man to get his photograph after which his identity was confirmed,” added Gharal

He further said, “Ashfaq is a habitual drinker. After getting drunk he would call up his contractor and ask for his past dues. He also asked him if the victim’s family had filed any case against him. We had instructed the contractor to deny this and to try and get him back. We nabbed him outside a country bar in Nehru Nagar on late Tuesday night.”