A 26-year-old man has been arrested by the Anti-Human Trafficking Cell of Thane police for allegedly luring a Nepalese minor girl into his custody on the pretext of looking after her, police said today.
The relatives of the 17-year-old victim were trying to 'sell her off' when the accused A R Gautam, who was on a visit to Nepal, assured them that he would support the girl and brought her to a chawl in Gaikwad Pada in Ulhasnagar township here, Inspector S I Shaikh of Thane AHTC said.
Acting on a tip-off, the AHTC officials, in the wee hours of yesterday, raided the place and rescued the girl. Gautam was arrested, he said.
The accused, was to marry the girl to which she had agreed, was reportedly already married twice. He hails from Uttar Pradesh, the Inspector said.
A case has been registered under section 366B (Importation of girl from foreign country) of the IPC by the Ambernath East police and further investigation is on, he added.
