Two arrested for sexually assaulting minors

Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that both suspects were arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody on Saturday

Two persons were arrested on charges of sexually assaulting minor girls in Rajendra Park and Shivaji Nagar on Saturday night, in unrelated incidents, the police said.

The police booked the offenders under the POCSO Act. (Representative photo)

Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that both suspects were arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody on Saturday.

In the first case, a 40-year-old labourer was arrested for allegedly molesting his 14-year-old daughter while his wife was away for domestic work in Om Nagar.

The girl’s mother alleged that on Friday, when she returned from work, her daughter told her that her father abused her, assaulted her and touched her inappropriately. When she resisted, he threatened that she would be raped, the police said.

The girl’s mother told the police that she is the sole breadwinner of the family and that her husband stayed home. She said that he is an alcoholic and she fears for her daughter’s safety. “I am fearing to leave my daughter alone, as he might rape her any day in my absence. My daughter is unable to sleep and eat for the past week. I need protection for my daughter or the man needs to be arrested at the earliest,” she said in her complaint.

A case under sections 294 (obscene acts), 323 (assault) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 8 of the Protection Of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered at the Shivaji Colony police station.

In the other case, a 24-year-old man was arrested for trying to rape a seven-year-old girl in Kherki Majra village in the Rajendra Park area.

According to the child’s mother, who works with an NGO in a school, said that the man was inside her home and undressing her daughter when she returned home around 11am on Saturday. She said that the house was locked and when she forced it open, the carpenter they had recently hired was allegedly trying to rape her. The mother raised the alarm, following which neighbours gathered and caught hold of the suspect.

The suspect was booked under Section 6 (sexual assault) of the POCSO Act at the Rajendra Park police station.