Ghaziabad: Madrasa cleric arrested over involvement in 10-year-old's rape
What's the story
The maulvi of the Ghaziabad madrasa, where a 10-year-old girl was confined and raped, was arrested on Friday.
The juvenile boy, who lured her to the madrasa (where he studied) and then allegedly raped her, was also detained and sent to a correctional home.
The girl went missing last Saturday. She was rescued a day later by the Delhi Police.
Here's more.
Details
Girl was raped in maulvi's room at madrasa
The survivor was held captive and raped in the maulvi's room at the madrasa, which he had let out to the juvenile, reports TOI.
The cleric has been identified as 40-year-old Ghulam Shahid.
Delhi Police's Crime Branch is currently scanning his call logs and questioning his family to verify his claims that he wasn't at the madrasa at the time of the incident.
Suspicion
Victim's parents allege gangrape
The girl has alleged she was molested by not just the boy but several others. Saying that she was gang-raped, her parents have accused Shahid of being involved.
"The cleric and the girl's family were neighbors but were not in touch. The cleric's family locked their house and ran away after police raided the madrasa," a local resident told Hindustan Times.
Political angle
BJP MP had called for maulvi's arrest
East Delhi MP Maheish Girri, who met the girl's family on Wednesday, had called Shahid the mastermind.
"The cleric and others should be immediately arrested as the apprehended boy is a pawn in the larger conspiracy the maulana hatched. We demand the rapists be hanged and the madrasa where the crime took place be sealed with immediate effect," he told HT.
Other instances
Alarming rise in brutal rapes of young girls
This incident is the latest in a series of such cases that have shamed the nation.
A 9-year-old in Surat, a 7-year-old in Etah, a 10-year-old in Chhattisgarh, a 13-year-old in Bihar, a 13-year-old and a 9-year-old in Muzaffarnagar, a 6-year-old in Cuttack and a 9-year-old in Chennai are a few of the children raped in just the last two weeks.