A 60-year-old man was arrested by the police for allegedly sexually harassing a 7-year-old girl from his neigbourhood in Gulabi Bagh area of north Delhi, officials said on Saturday.
According to the police, the accused—an elderly man identified as Badrinath, resident of Delhi’s Pratap Nagar—allegedly undressed the minor girls and touched her private parts.
An official said that on Wednesday night, the girl’s mother, accompanied by her daughter filed a complaint against the accused at a local police station. She said that her daughter, a student of second standard, had narrated the ordeal to her mother, accusing the old man or sexually harassing her for the past 8-10 days.
On Wednesday, the man allegedly undressed the child and touched her privates. The girl told her mother resulting in an argument between her and the accused leading to the police being informed about the quarrel at around 10:29 pm on Wednesday night.
A senior official said the woman’s statement was recorded at the police station and a case under section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered against the accused.
The accused has been arrested and further investigation is underway, he said, adding that a medical examination of the victim is being carried out.
In a similar incident, a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped by an inebriated man while her friend (9) was injured, as she managed to escape a rape attempt the accomplice of the accused on Holi, Wednesday, in Bihar’s Begusarai.
According to reports, the two girls, aged 7 and 9, who belong to same village, were on their way back from a local market on Holi during afternoon hours. The girls stopped at a local government school in Panchdir Chowk on their way back home to enjoy a swing ride where they were approached by the two men, who tried to coax the minors to come with them. The men were reportedly drunk.
Liquor is banned in Bihar.
The girls, fearing their motives, refused and one child hid tried hiding in the school toilet where one of the accused, identified as Sohan Kumar alias Chhotu Mahto, allegedly raped her. The victim’s friend managed to resist the rape bid by the second accused, Bablu Kumar, and ran away to a nearby street where she informed people about the incident.
The girl sustained injuries while escaping the rape bid.
Reports said that locals soon rushed to the spot and rescued the rape victim who had been thrown into the bushes by the accused after the horrendous act.