A nine-year-old girl travelling in a private bus from Bengaluru to Dharmasthala was allegedly sexually harassed by a 23-year-old fellow passenger on Sunday. According to the police, her co-passengers thrashed the man in Dharmasthala from where he is said to have fled. The Belthangady police said that though the girl was travelling with her parents, they were sitting in different seats. Lokesh, the accused, was sitting behind the girl’s seat. He allegedly touched the girl inappropriately.
She got up from her seat and reported the matter to her mother. After confronting Lokesh, the girl’s parents and the co-passengers thrashed him when they all alighted at Dharmasthala.
Based on a compliant by the girl’s father, the police have registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The police, who have launched a search, have obtained details pertaining to Lokesh, a native of Hosur in Tamil Nadu, who was travelling with his friends to the pilgrimage centre.