Ten days after a 16-year-old girl was raped at Ghanori village in Valsad district in the early hours of August 16 while she was going for tuitions at Dungri village, officials of Special Operation Group (SOG) arrested two men in this connection from two different places.
The two were traced by the cops on the basis of location of the mobile phone of the girl which one of the rapists had taken away. The two offenders, identified as Faruk Lambat and Munaf Sheikh, were presented at a media briefing. Intriguingly, both offenders are middle aged and have their own family.
Faruk Lambat, 37, a resident of Rankuva village in Chikli, was arrested from his home, while Munaf Sheikh, 43, a resident of Ismailpura, Dashera Tekri, Navsari was arrested from Surat. Lambat is an auto rickshaw driver, while Sheikh works in a plastic factory in Surat.
"We had only three clues in the case - a red-colour Pulsar bike, mobile phone of the girl and a name Mohan, which the girl had heard while the duo was talking. Lambat began using the mobile phone a few days after the rape, which was traced by our SOG officials.
They identified the location as Rankuva and arrested Lambat. During interrogation, he divulged the name of Sheikh, who was arrested too," DJ Patel, DSP of Valsad district, said at the press briefing.
"Both of them had gone to Daman prior to the incident and consumed liquor. Lambat has a girlfriend in Vapi, where the duo spent the night. Next morning, they set out for Rankuva. Instead of going by NH-8, they took internal road, and on the way between Ghanori and Undergota village, they noticed the girl. The duo stopped the girl and raped her in a field," Patel added.
Meanwhile, Valsad District Advocate Association has decided not to provide any legal help to the offenders. At a meeting, the association members urged all advocates to refrain from taking up the case of these offenders.
