Pune, June 13: The Cantonment police on Thursday traced a 17-year-old girl from the city, who had gone missing, to Nashik. Her 23-year-old boyfriend, who went with her, after promising to marry her, has been arrested on charges of abduction.
Assistant police inspector B M Mule, who is investigating the case, said the girl and the youth, Rahul Vahale, of Nana Peth, had become friendly some two years back since they visited the same dargah’. On May 17, they eloped to Nashik. When the girl did not return home till late in the evening, her father, an employee with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), lodged a complaint with the police.
Investigations revealed that Vahale, who earlier lived with his sister at Undri, had relocated to Nashik. Acting on this information, a police team traced Vahale and the girl to Nashik. Vahale was arrested on charges of abduction since the girl is a minor. The youth used to work as a welder in Nashik.
Drama prevailed at the Cantonment police station with the girl requesting her parents to withdraw their complaint against Vahale. She claimed she had married the youth. However, the parents were in no mood to listen to her and asked the police to take strict action against Vahale for eloping with their daughter.
The girl told TOI that she had married Vahale in Nashik and that he had converted to Islam before a maulana’ there. She said he had changed his name to Anwar Habib Shaikh. “The legal complications because of me being a minor cannot separate me from my husband’. I will support him no matter what. I don’t care about the case registered by my parents,” she said.
—Agencies–