Youth held on charges of raping minor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 19-year-old youth, Arun of Parassala, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of allegedly raping and impregnating a minor girl. According to the Parassala police, Arun was a repeat offender with around 10 cases, six of them charged when he was a juvenile, registered against him.

As for the rape case, the police said it was only when the girl, aged 15, was into the advances stage of pregnancy that her family came to know about it, that too when she was taken to hospital with complaints of a persistent stomach-ache. The girl has told police that she did not know about her condition. The accused was the girl’s neighbour and had allegedly been sexually abusing her for the past one year, reportedly after promising to marry her, the police said.

Arun, who has been arrested on more than one occasion earlier, is an accused in various cases, including thefts from religious places, vehicle lifting, LPG cylinder thefts, assaults and peddling of drugs.

Most of these cases were registered against him when he was a minor, the police said, adding that his blood sample was taken for a DNA test to confirm the girl’s statement. While the accused was produced before court and remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday, the girl is under medical care in a State-run hospital at Parassala.