Malappuram: Wandoor Police arrested two youths and charged them with kidnap and rape after they took their two minor girlfriends, who are siblings, from their cousin's house in Wandoor to Bengaluru for a two-day tour.
The youths were identified as Basil Baby (23), a resident of Angamaly in Ernakulam, and Muhammed Ramees (22), a resident of Kodungallur in Thrissur.
Sub-inspector T P Musthafa, in charge of law and order, said he arrested them while they were returning with the girls, aged 14 and 15 years, in a KSRTC Swift bus at Anamari check post, around 100km from Wandoor.
Police said the young men got to know each other through the girls. They separately met the girls on Instagram. The older girl is awaiting her Class 10 results, and the younger will be in ninth in the next academic year. The young men were in a relationship with the girls for around one year, said the officer.
On April 16, the girls came to their maternal aunt's daughter's house at Wandoor for vacation.
Their boyfriends arrived in Wandoor on two motorcycles and drove off with the girls to Ernakulam. They left their motorcycles there and the four boarded a train to Bengaluru, said the sub-inspector.
By then, the girls' aunt filed a missing complaint with Wandoor Police. The officers tracked the phones of the girls and found they were in Bengaluru. "They checked into a house near the railway station," SI Musthafa said.
After the police arrested the youths on Friday, April 19, the girls reportedly told the investigating officers that their boyfriends gave them liquor and sexually assaulted them in Bengaluru. The medical reports are yet to arrive but based on the statements of the girls, police charged the youths with kidnap (S 363 of IPC), rape (S 376 of IPC), intoxicating the girls with the intent to cause hurt (S 328 of IPC), penetrative sexual assault (Section 3 (a) read with Section 4 (2) of POCSO Act), sexual harassment (Section 12 of POCSO Act) and giving liquor to minors [Section 77 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act].
Ramees runs a light and sound business with his father. Basil Baby also has a job, said the officer. They were remanded in judicial custody by the Assistant Sessions Court, Manjeri.