MUMBAI: The statistics available with the city police shows the city is rapidly becoming unsafe for minor girls. As per the police record, 80 minor girls were reported raped and 157 were reported kidnapped here in last two months.
The figures show a sharp increase in the reporting of cases of sexual assault of minor girls in the city. In 2014, 350 minor girls were reported raped. The figure was 447 in 2015. In first two months of 2016, it was recorded as 80.
Similarly, the reporting of cases of kidnapping of minor girls is also on the rise. In 2014, 289 minor girls were reported kidnapped. The figure was 922 in 2015. In January and February, 157 cases of kidnapping have been registered.
Last week, two minor girls were found dead after being sexually assaulted at Kurla and Mankhurd. When police arrested a drug addict in the Mankhurd case, his tale has left the officers shaken. According to police, the accused, Sachin Pachane, said that he needed sex when he was inebriated.
“He told us that he needed sex when in an inebriated state at any cost. He said he was involved in various sexual acts with more than 400 commercial sex workers, eunuchs and more than 100 animals too, in last few months, that included goats, stray dogs, cows and donkey,” said Nasir Sheikh, Senior Inspector, Mankhurd Police Station.
A police officer said that the kidnapped girls were being forced to work as beggars.
“Last year, we had succeeded in tracing around 1,000 missing children and reuniting them with their parents. However, the rising cases of kidnapping and rapes have posed a big challenge,” he said.
Leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil held Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, responsible for the declining law and order situation. “He is not able to dedicate enough time to look into the issue of law and order. The State needs a full-time Home Minister,” Vikhe-Patil said.
Social activist Preeti Dandekar demanded that culprits in these cases should be punished at the earliest. “The number of assault cases is worrying. I believe the police have arrested the accused in these cases. They should be tried as early as possible,” she said.