Mumbai: A 42-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly molesting a six-year-old girl from his neighbourhood for the last three months. Police said the accused, identified as Rashid Mohammed Solkar, a resident of Versova.
The police said the victim’s mother took her to a local hospital on Monday to be treated for an infection in her private parts.
The doctor, after examining the child, told her mother that he has detected signs of sexual assault. When she asked her daughter about it, she said she was being exploited by Solkar since September, after some hesitation.
Her mother took her to the police station, where her statement was recorded and a case was registered against Solkar. He was subsequently picked up from his residence and placed under arrest.
Police said Solkar has been charged with outraging a woman's modesty under the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Senior PI Kiran Kale, Versova police station, said, “The accused regularly takes children from his locality to a nearby garden to play. It was during one such instance in September that he touched the victim inappropriately. He later started taking the victim to his house and exploiting her whenever he found the victim playing outside her house, while her parents were at work.”
The police are now interrogating the accused to find out if he has similarly targeted other minors in his locality in the past. An officer with Versova police station said that given his regular contact with children in his locality, the possibility cannot be denied.
The police will also be appealing to residents of Solkar's locality to come forward and contact them if they know of any such instance. A local awareness campaign about child sexual abuse is also being planned, police said.
