A 16-year-old girl and her 22-year-old boyfriend, who had eloped in May last year, were traced by the Mumbai crime branch in Kashimira, Mira Road on Monday morning. The two were found after the Bombay High Court directed the police commissioner Hasan Gafoor to file an affidavit regarding efforts being taken to trace the couple.
The police said that, in 2007, a complaint was registered after the girl went missing from her Malwani residence. However, when neighbours told her parents that she was seen leaving with Feroze Abdul Khaleef Shaikh, a welder staying in their neighbourhood, a case of kidnapping was registered against him.
“The two had disappeared and could not be traced. In 2008, the girl’s parents filed a habeas corpus writ petition in the Bombay High Court stating that the police was unable to trace their daughter,” said joint commissioner of police (Crime), Rakesh Maria.
A bench comprising Justices Bilal Nazki and Ashutosh Arvind Kumbakoni directed the Mumbai Police chief to file an affidavit in the matter. In his affidavit, the commissioner stated that the crime branch had been pressed into action to locate the girl.
On August 28 this year, the case was handed over to the crime branch. On Monday, crime branch’s Chembur unit spotted the girl and the accused at Yatri Hotel in Kashimira.
Shaikh had told the girl that he loved her. He had saved Rs15,000 and also sold his scooter. The two then fled to Madgaon in Goa where he used to earn a living as a welder. When he came to know that the police was after him, the duo left Goa and kept shifting base to evade cops. “We have sent the girl for medical examination. If the duo has had sex, Shaikh will be booked for rape because the girl is a minor. He will be produced in court on Tuesday,” said Maria.
s_somendranath@dnaindia.net
