Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Mar 12: Ikku alias Iqbal, who had abducted a girl from Karopady, Kanyana near Vittal in the taluk, stands arrested. The police, who got information that Iqbal was hiding in an area near his home in Kanyana, raided the spot and succeeded in arresting him on Wednesday March 11.

Iqbal had abducted the minor girl, a student of a college, and taken her to Thiruvananthapuram. There he had stayed in a hotel with this girl, and during their stay there, also raped her, it is said. When police raided the hotel room where the couple stayed, Iqbal was found to have absconded, leaving the girl alone in the room.

File photo of Iqbal

The girl, who had left home on the pretext of attending college, had not returned home in the evening. Her parents had filed a missing case, which was converted into abduction after it became clear that the girl, who was a minor, was accompanied by a young man. The policemen, who were tipped off about the presence of the boy and girl from their jurisdiction at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram, had rushed there. They found only the girl there, as the youth had fled.

The police, who brought the girl here on Monday, had allowed her to join her family after obtaining statement about what transpired during the period of her absence. Iqbal now faces charges under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and has been produced in court.