Thane, Mar 8: Three girls from Miragaon in Thane district of Maharashtra who ran away from their homes have been traced within hours on an out-station train at Khed in Ratnagiri district, police said on Wednesday.

The girls, aged between 11 years to 14 years, were playing in a garden on March 6 evening. As it became late, they thought that their parents will scold them and decided to run away. They reached a nearby railway station and boarded a train, without knowing its destination, a Kashimira police station officer said.

Meanwhile, the parents of the girls lodged a complaint with the police as they failed to return home till late at night.

"Police managed to trace the location of one of the girls as she was carrying a mobile phone and found that they were travelling on Mandovi Express. They were traced at Khed in Ratnagiri district, around 153 km from Thane, on Tuesday. They were brought home safely and reunited with their family members," the officer added.

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Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday. 

The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said. 

A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said. 

Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.

Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.

Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.

Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.

Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.

The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.

According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet. 

"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.