The Delhi Police on Friday arrested a maulvi for his role in the alleged abduction and rape of a 10-year-old at a madrassa in Uttar Pradesh’s Sahibabad, The Hindu reported. The police had earlier arrested a 17-year-old boy for allegedly abducting and raping the girl, according to The Indian Express.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ramgopal Naik confirmed the arrest of 34-year-old cleric Ghulam Shahid, The Hindu reported. “It has been established that he was aware of the girl’s presence but he failed to inform the police,” an unidentified police officer said.
The girl’s father said she went missing on April 21. He filed a police complaint after she did not get back from the market. The police said they managed to access closed-circuit television footage purportedly showing the 17-year-old taking her in an auto rickshaw. The accused allegedly knew the girl. The police claimed that they also found details of the accused from call record details of a phone at the girl’s home. This reportedly helped them track them down.
On Friday, a group broke into the cleric’s home and vandalised it while shouting communal slogans, The Indian Express reported. The cleric’s 25-year-old wife had relocated to her parents home with her two children a few days ago. “My husband is innocent, but some people and media channels are saying he has committed a crime,” she said, adding that people have been shouting slogans and threatening to kill her husband if he returns.
Police said they have booked several people, including a local councillor, for the vandalism. “There were around 100 people, mostly women, who had assembled outside the maulvi’s house,” Station House Officer Rakesh Kumar Singh told The Indian Express. “They claimed to be members of a new party called Ajai Shiv Sena. We are providing security to his family.”
Sahibabad BJP MLA Sunil Kumar Sharma wrote to Chief Minister Adityanath claiming that the madrassa “had become a centre for illegal activities” and demanded that it be sealed.
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