Pune, Dec 6 (IANS): In a shocking incident, a 20-year-old man allegedly beat up a girl and threatened her for rejecting his marriage proposal, police said.

In what appears to be a case of one-sided love, the man, Prashant S Kamble, accosted the 19-year-old girl at Nanapeth in Pune on the evening of November 23 and proposed marriage. When she flatly refused and started to walk away, Kamble grabbed her arm and started dragging her.

When she resisted, he started slapping and punching her. Though there were a few people around, nobody came to her aid. The girl somehow managed to escape from his clutches and run away from there.

After that the traumatized girl went into hiding at her aunt’s home. The girl and her family finally mustered courage and lodged a formal complaint against Kamble with the Samarth Police Station late on Tuesday and Investigation Officer Dipak Yadav launched a probe.

As per the preliminary investigations, the boy and girl were neighbours since childhood and they hailed from middle-class families which were well-acquainted with each other.

However, for the last few years Kamble had been pestering her and had proposed to her on many occasions. The girl steadfastly refused, and on at least three previous occasions, Kamble had slapped and beaten her up, but her family did not take the matter to the police.

Fed up of the harassment and stalking for the last few weeks, the girl had shifted to her aunt's home in Samarth area, but the man followed her even there.

In the latest instance, the enraged Kamble reportedly threatened her with dire consequences saying that “if I don’t marry you, nobody else will.”

Officials said that taking a serious view of the threats, the police are now planning to invoke stringent sections against Kamble which could lead to minimum seven years’ imprisonment since it was a matter of the girl’s future safety and security.

When contacted, IO Yadav said that the seniors will consult the police legal team and others before taking further steps in the case.