Hyderabad: A 24-year-old vegetable vendor and two of his associates were arrested in Patancheru on Tuesday for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl multiple times over the past two years.The incident came to light on Monday after Patancheru police received a complaint from the girl’s parents, alleging that their daughter had been kidnapped by a vegetable vendor from a neighbouring colony.According to the girl’s mother, one of the accused had asked to marry her daughter a few days earlier, but the family refused. “Around 12.30 am on Monday, when we were asleep, he, along with two of his friends, forced their way into our hut and attacked us with sticks, stones and beer bottles. My husband suffered injuries to his head, arms and legs. I sustained a head injury, while my 14-year-old younger daughter was also hit on the head with a beer bottle. After the assault, the trio forcibly took away my 17-year-old daughter,” the woman stated in her complaint.Based on the complaint, a police team immediately went to the main accused’s house and found the girl there. On seeing the police, the accused fled, abandoning the girl.In her statement to the police at the Bharosa centre, the girl said she had become acquainted with the accused two years ago while she was going to school. The girl told police that the accused sexually abused her multiple times at his house when his family members were not present.Based on the girl’s statement and her mother’s complaint, Patancheru police booked a case against the vegetable vendor and his two friends, who are labourers, under sections 64 (2) (m) (committing rape repeatedly on same woman), 331 (6) (trespass), 109 (attempt to murder), 137 (2) (kidnapping) of the BNS and sections 5 & 6 of POCSO Act.“The accused were arrested on Tuesday. They were produced before the court and sent to judicial remand,” RC Puram ACP Ch Y Srinivas Kumar said.
