More cases of sexual assault reported during lockdown in Coimbatore rural

Coimbatore District (Rural) Police registered 115 cases for sexual assault on minors from January 2020 to June this year and the maximum cases were reported during the COVID-19-induced lockdown period, showed statistics provided by the police.

The data also showed that there was an increase in the number of sexual offences against minors during the lockdown period as against pre-lockdown period.

According to the Rural Police, 205 cases were registered under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act from 2018 to June 2021 and more than half of these cases were reported in the last one-and-a-half years.

Rural Superintendent of Police S. Selvanagarathinam said that some children became victims of sexual offences during the lockdown when they remained at their homes. At the same time, reporting of sexual assaults increased in the district due to the increase in the awareness, he said.

“The Rural Police conducted 100 camps this year to create awareness on the POCSO Act and offences against children. Forty such camps were held in the last 10 days,” he said.

To tackle the threat of children being lured to offenders and offensive contents while attending online classes, Rural Police are conducting online awareness programmes for students through the School Education Department. “Head of the schools can contact Rural Police for resource persons to conduct such online classes which will be very useful for children and parents,” he said.

He said that Rural Police will explore the possibility of invoking provisions of the Goondas Act against persons arrested in POCSO Act cases. Procedure for slapping Goondas Act on six offenders were under way, he said.