Police have arrested a 45-year-old man, father of three daughters, on the charge of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Dalit girl, when she was alone at home and threatening her at Nagarikathan village in Thiruvadani police sub division.
Police said, the girl, whose mother had passed away about ten years ago, was alone at home on September 26, when the man, identified as K Dharmalingam, working as a ‘dhobi’ in the village, sexually assaulted her and fled after she raised an alarm.
The girl, studying in class VIII in a local government school was at home during the quarterly holidays when the incident happened. Her father, a construction worker would go out for work in the morning and return home late in the evening. As the girl did not report the incident to her aunt, who was taking care of her, the man again tried to rape her on September 30 and threatened to kill her. Her aunt on hearing the commotion, rushed in and caught him and tied him to a pole with the help of villagers.
On being informed, the Thiruvadanai police arrested him on Sunday and remanded him in judicial custody. Dharmalingam was living with his wife in the village. His three daughters, who are in their 20s, work in textile mills in Coimbatore and Tirupur, police said.
He was arrested under sections 375 (rape) and 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and under sections 3 (1) and 3 (2) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, police said.
