Mumbai, Oct. 18: A rape charge has again stained the uniform of Mumbai police.

Six months after the rape of a college student by a drunk constable on Marine Drive, another tipsy policeman was arrested today on the charge of raping a 15-year-old girl in a garden a stone’s throw from his police station near the airport.

Constable Chandrakant Vithal Pawar, 45, was caught by an airport employee and auto rickshaw drivers and handed over to Sahar police station.

According to the police, the incident took place between 11.30 and 11.45 on Monday night near the police station.

Satyen Nair, an Airports Authority of India employee, spotted the victim and Pawar, whose dishevelled and muddied clothes aroused his suspicion. Questioned by Nair, the girl said the policeman raped her. Pawar was later handed over to the police with the auto drivers’ help.

The girl stays with her family in a hut near the Sahar police station and earns a living by collecting recyclable waste.

“We sent Pawar and the victim for medical tests immediately. A blood test was also conducted to ascertain if he was drunk. Duty records show that the constable was absent from work frequently,” deputy commissioner Shashikant Shinde said.

On April 21, drunk beat constable Sunil More was arrested on the charge of raping a 17-year-old college girl in a police outpost on Marine Drive.

Late on Tuesday night, reports came in from Navi Mumbai, a satellite suburb, of another rape of a minor by a police constable. However, the police did not confirm the incident.