An employee of a hotel has been arrested for raping a one-year-old girl in Zirakpur, the Mohali district police said on Sunday. The victim has been admitted to the community health centre in Dhakoli, where her condition is stated to be serious.
The accused has been identified as Om Prakash, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh and works in the housekeeping section of a hotel on Patiala Road in Zirakpur.
The girl’s mother works as a construction labourer at a site near the hotel. She told police that as a daily routine, she had taken her daughter along for work on Saturday and had left her under the shade of a tree in a park near the work site.
Upon returning, she found the accused sexually assaulting the infant in the bushes. As she raised the alarm, he fled.
A case has been registered under Sections 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code besides the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.