A man was arrested for allegedly kissing a 14-year-old mentally ill girl forcibly in Ambernath in Maharashtra`s Thane district, a police official told PTI on Saturday.
The official identified the accused as Harish Raju Shengal (26), who has been charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code for sexual harassment, use of criminal force against women, and other offenses, reported PTI.
“He took the girl to an isolated room near her house in Bhuvapada on June 10 and kissed her forcibly. He touched her inappropriately. Shengal was arrested on the complaint of the victim`s mother,” the official at Ambernath police station told PTI.
Earlier in the month, a man was detained on Friday in Ambernath, Thane district, for allegedly molesting a three-and-a-half-year-old girl sexually, a police official told PTI.
Abdul Kadir Abdul Kalam (41), a resident of Ambernath, was taken into custody under the terms of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act following the mother of the child`s complaint, according to a Shivaji Nagar police station official.
“The accused and the victim are neighbours. At 9 p.m. on Thursday, the child went to the accused`s house to play. He sexually abused her at the time,” he said.
On the other hand, police arrested a 39-year-old Mumbai grocery shop employee for allegedly sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl, a police official said, according to news agency PTI.
The man allegedly targeted the child when she went to the shop, located in the Kalachowki area in central Mumbai, to buy biscuits on Tuesday evening, the official told PTI.
On the pretext of giving biscuits, the man called her inside and allegedly touched her inappropriately.
She rescued herself when the accused, who was alone in the store, tried to remove the child`s clothes.
The girl was aware of “good touch and bad touch,” due to which she realised the intention of the Mumbai grocery store employee, escaped from the shop, and alerted her mother, the official told PTI.
The official told PTI that when the girl`s mother went to the shop to confront the employee, who was drunk at the time, he started misbehaving with her.
The mother then reportedly filed a police complaint against him.
The Kalachowki police station registered a case against the man for sexual assault under the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children of Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and arrested him, the official added.
(with inputs from PTI)
