Man held for sexually assaulting 3-year-old

MUMBAI: The Tardeo police has arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl. The accused, Pradeep Gautam, kidnapped the 3-year-old girl from her parents while they were asleep on Sunday night and allegedly sexually assaulted her at a chinese stall nearby. The accused works at the same stall. The incident came to light on Monday morning when a woman on her morning walk found a minor girl crying on the road at Mumbai Central. The concerned woman took her to Tardeo police station. The woman police officers tried to calm down the girl; however, she didn't stop crying. Their suspicion intensified when it was revealed that the victim was bleeding from her private parts. The police then began their investigation and also started to look for her parents. They traced her family at Mumbai Central bridge and, while checking CCTV footage of the area, they found the accused taking the girl away from her mother's custody when they were asleep.

"Hours af ter the incident was reported, we nabbed the accused who works at a chinese stall nearby. He was arrested under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections of rape (376) and kidnapping (363) and under the relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," said Firoz Bhagwan, senior police inspector of Tardeo police station.

In an another incident, Pant Nagar police, on Wednesday, arrested a 45-year-old man from Ratnagiri on the charges of raping his minor daughter. The case came to light when the hospital authorities informed the police about a 17-year-old girl who delivered a baby on Monday at the hospital. During the investigation, the minor told the police that her father and friend used to sexually assault her.