Nagpur: Class 12 girl raped in cafe after blackmail over photos, accused held

Nagpur: A minor girl was raped in a cafe after being lured with a promise of marriage and blackmailed, police said. Nandanvan police have registered a case and arrested the accused, Sameer Sheikh (20), a resident of Bada Tajabad, Sakkardara.

The victim is a 17-year-old Class 12 student. A friend of hers knew Sameer. A year ago, the friend borrowed the girl's mobile phone to speak to him. Sameer thus got the girl's number and began talking to her. He told her he had mistakenly "proposed" to her friend, and that he actually loved her. He befriended her on the promise of marriage and had photographs taken with her. He then began blackmailing her with a threat to make the photographs viral.

According to the girl's complaint, on the afternoon of July 29 Sameer took her to a cafe at Bhande Plot Chowk and forced himself on her. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone. Frightened, she told no one.

Sameer continued to harass her. Distressed, she told her father, who informed Sunita Thakre, head of the Chaitanya NGO. On the afternoon of October 4, Sameer came to the girl's house with a pregnancy test kit and began telling her to take a pregnancy test.

With the help of Chaitanya NGO president Sunita Thakre and vice-president Mohd. Hafeez Sabri, the girl filed a complaint at Nandanvan police station. Police have registered a case under rape and POCSO provisions.

After the case came to light, Nandanvan police went to inspect the cafe at Bhande Plot Chowk. There were about 15 cabins, and young men and women were hiding in all of them. Everything was being run under the cover of a cafe. The girl had been assaulted in one of these cabins. On seeing the police, the young men and women in the cabins fled. Sameer has been absconding since the case was registered.