Man arrested for sexually assaulting 14-year-old girl

Representative image. File photo

A man was arrested for forcibly kissing a 14-year-old mentally ill girl in Ambernath in Thane district, Maharashtra, a police official told PTI on Saturday.

The officer identified the accused as Harish Raju Shengal (26), who was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code for sexual harassment, use of force against women and other offences, PTI reported.

“He took the girl to a secluded room near her house in Bhuvapada on June 10 and forcibly kissed her. He touched her inappropriately. Shengal was arrested on the complaint of the victim’s mother,” the Ambernath police station officer told PTI.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested in Ambernath in Thane district on Friday for allegedly sexually assaulting a three-and-a-half-year-old girl, a police official told PTI.

Abdul Kadir Abdul Kalam (41), a resident of Ambernath, was taken into custody under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act after the child’s mother filed a complaint, according to an officer of Shivaji Nagar police station.

“The accused and the victim are neighbors. On Thursday at 9 p.m. the child went to the accused’s house to play. He sexually abused her at that time,” he said.

On the other hand, according to news agency PTI, police arrested a 39-year-old employee of a grocery store in Mumbai on charges of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl, a police official said.

The man allegedly targeted the child when she went to the shop in Kalachowki area of ​​central Mumbai to buy biscuits on Tuesday evening, the official told PTI.

Under the pretext of giving her cookies, the man called her in and allegedly touched her inappropriately.

She was able to save herself when the defendant, who was alone in the store, tried to take off the child’s clothes.

The girl noticed “good and bad touches” which made her realise the intention of the Mumbai grocery store employee, fled the store and alerted her mother, the official told PTI.

The official told PTI that when the girl’s mother went to the shop to confront him and the employee, who was drunk at the time, started misbehaving with her.

According to reports, the mother then filed a complaint with the police.

The Kalachowki police station has registered a case of sexual assault under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the man and arrested him, the officer added.

(with contributions from PTI)