RENO, NV - On March 11, deputies arrested Arsh Bhardwaj, 21, after he reportedly raped a young girl he met through a popular social media app.
Four days earlier, Washoe County sheriff's deputies responded to the 5300 block of Sun Valley Boulevard on the report of a sexual assault.
KRNV reported:
Detectives said Bhardwaj used Snapchat messaging to lure the girl to a location and then forced her into a car and forced himself on her.
The victim is under the age of 14, according to court documents.
Bhardwaj was charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child (victim under 14), two counts of luring a child w/computer for sex, lewdness with a child, first-degree sexually motivated kidnapping of a child, attempted sexual abuse of a child, attempted kidnapping of a minor, attempted abuse of a child for sexual exploitation and attempted use of a child under 14 to be subject to sexual portrayal. He was booked into the Washoe County Jail on $200,000 bond.
Bhardwaj has since been released.
The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information on this case is urged to contact the Washoe County Sheriff's Office at 775-328-3320.
*In 2014, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office announced that they would “no longer hold people in custody at the Washoe County Detention Facility based solely on a request to detain by Federal immigration authorities.”
In 2017, the Reno city council passed a resolution making the municipality a so-called ‘Welcoming City.’ The move was made to send a message to the Trump administration’s tough stance on illegal aliens and local governments which protect them from deportation.
Bhardwaj came to this country from India.
