Priest held for minor's rape

Ten days after he sexually assaulted a schoolgirl in northeast Delhi, a 56-year-old priest at a local temple was arrested on Thursday, police said.

Ten days after he sexually assaulted a schoolgirl in northeast Delhi, a 56-year-old priest at a local temple was arrested on Thursday, police said.

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"Sarv Narayan Jha, a resident of northeast Delhi's Nand Nagri area, has been arrested from Darbhanga in Bihar for raping a 17-year-old girl on May 10," said Sanjay Kumar Jain, deputy commissioner of police (northeast).

Serving as a priest at a temple at Seemapuri for the past 25 years, Jha used to pay frequent visits to the homes of local residents to perform religious rituals.

He is married with six children of his own.

"On the fateful day, Jha, who was known to the family of the victim and had been a regular visitor to the house for the past 15 years, found her alone and sexually assaulted her," said a senior police officer investigating the incident.

Jha, police said, threatened the victim, a student of class XII at a local government school, with dire consequences lest she told her parents.

So, she kept shut about it for as long as possible but related the incident to her mother after a severe bout of stomach pain.

"Thereafter, the girl confided in her mother and related the entire incident to her. Her parents approached us with the complaint and we registered a case immediately after her medical examination, at the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, confirmed sexual assault," DCP Jain said.

Police said they nabbed Jha, who went missing immediately after the incident, from his native village in Darbhanga on Thursday.