Main accused arrested in Russian rape case

PANAJI: Aman Bharadwaj, the main accused in the rape of a Russian minor girl, has been arrested in Chembur, in Mumbai, Goa police said on Friday evening.

Bharadwaj was arrested by a Goa police team and is being brought to the state, the police said.

Earlier today, one of the two accused in the nine-year-old Russian girl rape case, who had engaged the victim's mother while the crime was being committed, was arrested by Goa Police.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ravindra Yadav told PTI that Anil Raghuvanshi, one of the two men, mentioned by Russian mother in her complaint, was arrested from Panaji bus stand this morning.

Yadav said the accused in his thirties was picked up from a bus which had arrived from Bangalore and was taken to Pernem police station, where the case is registered.

"He was on his way to Bangalore when we spoke to him yesterday," he said.

Goa Police on Thursday had identified the main accused as Aman Bharadwaj, from Uttar Pradesh, who allegedly raped the victim, holidaying in Goa with her mother on Arambol beach on January 26.

He did so when his accomplice Anil, who is from Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad district, diverted the mother's attention by striking a conversation with her.

Yadav said that police had spoken to Anil on his cell yesterday and thereafter his mobile was out of coverage area or had been switched off.

The accused duo, colleagues in a pharmaceutical firm at Dhargal industrial estate, were part of a group that had gone to Arambol for a picnic on Republic Day.