The Ahmedabad police have arrested a youth for allegedly converting a girl to Islam as well as raping and blackmailing her when he she was a minor in 2019.
The Vastrapur police arrested Riyaz Rafiq Memon under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, various sections of the IPC for rape and blackmail, POCSO Act and Information Technology Act.
Police said the girl was 16 when she came in contact with Memon, who hails from Palanpur in North Gujarat, through Instagram. He hurt himself with a blade and allegedly emotionally blackmailed her to share her nude pictures.
Subsequently, he allegedly raped her at Himalaya Inn hotel at Himalaya Mall in Vastrapur on December 11, 2021. He made a video of this too and forced her to get Rs 10,000 and her original identity documents.
He forcibly converted her through a maulvi in Tharad in Banaskantha district and married her in a Rajasthan court, the police said. Before Tharad, he took the girl to his friend Vikramsinh Rajput’s home in Dudhwa village in the district. He had also allegedly threatened to kill her parents if she did not cooperate.
The girl, now 18, lives in the Naranpura area of Ahmedabad with her parents and is studying for a Bachelor of Commerce in a city college.
The police said her parents filed a complaint after much effort. The ACP of ‘A’ Division Akash Patel is investigating the case. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Memon was married earlier and this was his second wedding.
Meanwhile, sources said the role of a police constable at Vastrapur Police Station is suspect since the inquiry in the case had been going for over a week but the complaint was not registered until senior police officers intervened.
