A 15-YEAR-OLD girl was allegedly raped and assaulted with a hammer by a man close to the railway station in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra’s Thane district, police said on Sunday. The incident took place on Friday night and the accused, identified as Shrikant Gaikwad (30), a labourer, was arrested a day later, a railway police official said. “The girl was walking on a skywalk at the Ulhasnagar railway station on her way home from Shirdi, along with her two friends, when Gaikwad suddenly came there and forcibly removed her scarf.

 

Later, he attacked her on her head with a hammer. He also threatened that he would harm her friends if they came to her rescue,” he said. The accused then forcibly took her to a shanty near the railway station and raped her. When the victim tried to flee from the spot later, he caught hold of her and beat her up. The girl escaped on Saturday morning when he was not present there and later reached her residence, the police official added. Later, her family members lodged a complaint at the Kalyan railway police station, the official said.