In a sordid revelation, a senior Indian Administrative Service has been booked by the police for sexually assaulting four schoolgirls.
Maruti Sawant (58), director-general of the Maharashtra Council of Agricultural Education and Research (MCAER) was arrested by the police on Thursday and booked on charges of rape and molestation of minor girls – aged between eight and 10 years - who lived in his apartment building.
He has been charged under sections 354 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code, under sections 6, 8 and 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
According to the Pune police, the accused had been luring the children, who studied in a municipal school, to the building basement on the pretext of giving sweetmeats.
“We are recording the statements of the victims and grilling the accused to discover whether there are any more cases,” said Sudakar Pathare, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II).
The incident came to light after the girls told their school teacher, who informed the principal, the wife of a corporator in the Pune Municipal Corporation.
“We immediately got the incident to the notice of the police,” said Shrikant Jagtap, PMC corporator of the Sinhagad Road area.”
Sawant is an officer from the Maharashtra Public Services Commission (MPSC) who was promoted to the IAS cadre in 1998.
While Maharashtra gained notoriety in 2014 by recording the highest cases of rape and assault among all states, more than 80 minor girls have been molested in Pune district since June last year, according to the Women and Child Welfare Department.
