Man arrested for stalking 13-yr old girl in Palghar district

Police have arrested a man from a village in Palghar district of Maharashtra for allegedly stalking a 13-year-old girl, an official said on Saturday. The accused, identified as Rakesh Pansare (24), was arrested by the district rural police on Friday from Phulpada in Virar. According to police, the accused had been stalking and harassing the girl for the last two years.

"The accused would regularly follow the victim to her school and try to intimidate her. He would tell the girl that he wanted to marry her.

Last week, he went to the victim's house and told her mother that he wanted to marry her daughter," police spokesperson Hemant Kumar Katkar said. He even threatened the girl's family members that he would harm himself if they did not accept his proposal, he added. After the incident, the victim's family approached the police and Pansare was booked under IPC sections 354 (D) (stalking), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), criminal intimidation).

Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was also slapped against him.