The Crime Branch of the Navi Mumbai police arrested a 31-year-old man from Bangalore for the rape of a minor under the jurisdiction of the Rabale MIDC police station, two and a half years after the incident occurred. The investigation was delayed due to an error in the name mentioned in the FIR. The accused raped a minor and ran away and an FIR was registered at Rabale MIDC police station on September 1, 2021 under sections 376 (a) (b), 354 (a) (b) of the IPC and sections 4, 8, and 12 of the POCSO Act 2012 for rape. However, the name mentioned in the FIR was Dhananjay Lalchand Saroj.
The Rabale MIDC police attempted to locate the accused by reaching out to his native village in Uttar Pradesh through correspondence. The mobile number he had been using was last switched off in Bangalore. However, the police were unable to locate him as there was no individual matching that name in the area. The Unit one of the crime branch continued the investigation and found that the actual name of the accused was Ananjay Lalchand Paswan alias Ganu, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.
“After getting the right name of the accused, the mobile number of the accused was searched and traced in Bangalore where his last mobile number with the old name was switched off,” said Ajay Landge, ACP Crime Branch. He added that the accused was working as a painter and it was difficult to locate. “The team visited several under construction buildings and finally, the accused was found at one building where he was working as a painter,” said Landge.