ADILABAD: The Nirmal police on Wednesday arrested Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and vice chairman of Nirmal municipality Sheik Shajid Khan for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl a few days ago.
The team also arrested two others identified as Yellati Annapurna, who facilitated Shajid Khan’s meeting with the victim, and car driver Jaffar Khan from the Ananthapet area of Nirmal rural mandal.
The accused had been absconding since the police booked a case against him under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Saturday.
The incident came to light when the victim’s parents lodged a complaint with the police.
Talking about the case, Nirmal Deputy Superintendent of Police D Upender Reddy said that Annapurna had some land dispute with her father and approached Sajid Khan to get it resolved. “Sajid agreed to help her but in return, he asked her to facilitate the meeting with the girl, a class VIII student, at a hotel in Hyderabad.
On February 9, Annapurna managed to take the girl to the hotel after convincing her family saying that they were going to attend a function in Nizamabad. Though she boarded a bus to Nizamabad with the girl, she later got down at Sofinagar and took the girl to the hotel in Sajid Khan’s vehicle. He raped her and threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed it to her parents ,” said the officer.
Shajid allegedly took the girl to several places and committed the crime. But when his demands became insistent, the girl confided her problem in her parents, who took her to the police on Saturday night.
The police also seized a car and three cell phones from the arrested persons. The court later remanded them to judicial custody.