More sordid details have emerged in the case of a senior IAS officer who was arrested by the Pune police on charge of sexually assaulting four schoolgirls in the Sinhagad Road area here.
According to the schoolgirls, Maruti Sawant (58), Director-General of the Maharashtra Council of Agricultural Education and Research (MCAER), had allegedly threatened to kill them if they refused to give in to his wishes.
As a result, the eldest of the girls, now aged 13 and studying in Class VII, had been raped for three years but was scared to confide it to her parents, said the police.
The sexual assault came to light when the victims told a school counsellor, who alerted the principal.
Sawant, who lured the schoolgirls by offering money to buy school books and sweets, used to show obscene photos on a computer before sexually assaulting them, said the police.
Pune police retrieved liquor bottles and packets of contraceptives from the flat owned by Sawant’s father-in-law on Sinhagad Road, where he used to exploit the victims.
“We verified all details at the municipal school where the girls studied,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police (Swargate division) Milind Mohite.
The accused, who has since been sacked by the State government, has been remanded in 10-day police custody.
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