An Armed Reserve Sub-Inspector of Police, Magendran (56), was arrested and remanded in judicial custody on the charge of misbehaving with a minor girl in his neighbourhood in the police quarters near Tallakulam here on Thursday.
Police said that the girl, studying Seventh Standard in a local school, was the daughter of a head constable. Since both her parents were working, she was put in special coaching classes near her school after school hours to ensure that the girl was not alone at home till their return. The mother used to pick her up from the tuition centre.
However, on Wednesday, the father had to attend a family function of his close friend in the marriage hall in AR Ground. Hence, he had asked one of his friends to pick up his daughter from school, by skipping the special coaching classes.
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The friend had dropped the girl at her house. While she was climbing up the stairs to her house on the first floor, the accused, who lived in the ground floor, followed her. While the girl was opening the door, the man held her hands and asked her to come to his house. “He had said that his wife was not at home. The girl wriggled out of his grip. Again the man tried to hug her and the girl shouted at him and managed to get into the house and lock the door from inside,” a police officer said.
At that time her mother returned home and the weeping girl narrated the incident to her.
The man denied that he misbehaved with her and was acting only friendly as usual.
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Meanwhile, her father and others rushed home and beat him up. He got admitted to a private hospital in Athikulam.
Following a complaint, the All Women Police Station at Tallakulam registered a case under provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Inspector N. Hemamala arrested Magendran and produced him before a judicial magistrate court that remanded him in judicial custody.