A 30-year-old man has been arrested for raping the 14-year-old daughter of his co-worker at a factory in Jugiana, Sahnewal.
Police said the Class-8 student and her father lived on the factory premises, with the accused occupying an adjacent room.
Her mother was away at their native place in Uttar Pradesh since the lockdown in May. Even the girl had returned from her native only recently after her school resumed physical classes.
As such, the father relied on the accused to pick and drop her from school while he was unavailable.
On Friday, while he was at work, the accused barged into their room and raped his minor daughter. He fled after threatening her to keep mum.
When the complainant returned home in the evening, the girl narrated the matter to him, following which they approached the police.
“The accused was arrested while he was trying to escape to evade police. He has been booked under Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 (penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act,” said inspector Balwinder Singh, station house officer (SHO), Sahnewal police station.