38-year-old man arrested for allegedly raping minor

A 38-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl in Sikar district in Rajasthan last week.

The incident took place when she was sleeping on a pavement with her mother. He allegedly lifted the girl and raped her in an isolated area, IG Jaipur Range DC Jain said. The accused, identified as Pawan Kumar Vishnoi, was caught from his village Nokha in Bikaner.

Earlier, the police had rounded up two persons on suspicion but their involvement did not come to light so they were released. A video footage recorded by a CCTV installed in a house near the crime scene, in which the accused is seen with the girl, was released by the police which led to the arrest of the accused, the officer said.

“We received inputs that a man Pawan Kumar, who looks like the person in the CCTV footage, was missing after the release of the video. He was working as a waiter in a local hotel in Sikar. A police team was sent to his village where he was caught,” Jain said.

Family of the accused, who is a father of two children, lives in Nokha, Bikaner, SP Sikar Akhilesh Kumar said. In the initial interrogation, the accused said that he consumed liquor on that night and lifted the girl. After raping her, he slept there along with the girl and after waking up in the wee hours, he fled from there.

The girl, who was raped on Thursday night last week, is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Jaipur.