The Trichy police arrested a 31-year-old advocate on Saturday for sexually assaulting a minor girl.
According to reports, the lawyer, *Prakash, lived in a rented home in Trichy and the owner of the house, his wife and their 17-year-old daughter lived in a separate apartment in the same building.
A complaint filed by the girl’s mother has alleged that on March 17, her daughter had gone to a shop nearby to buy something, when Prakash spotted her and offered to give her a lift home on his bike. He then allegedly took her to his house and sexually assaulted her. The girl managed to free herself from his clutches and reported the incident to her mother, who filed a police complaint.
Upon inquiry with the accused, he confessed to the assault. It also came to light that the girl’s father had entered into an argument with Prakash and two of his friends on March 20 over the girl’s mobile phone which was missing. The father had questioned Prakash on the suspicion that he might have stolen it and the argument ended up in Prakash and his friends verbally abusing and assaulting the father.
Based on the complaint of the girl’s mother, an FIR has been registered under sections 7 (Touching private parts of a child with sexual intent) and 8 (Punishment for sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Prakash was arrested and remanded to judicial custody on Saturday. Another FIR has been registered against Prakash and his friends Guru and Marya John Bosco for assault of the minor’s father.
In April, KP Prem Ananth, a practising lawyer and former BJP candidate in RK Nagar Assembly election in 2006 was arrested by Erode Railway police for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl in a moving train.
(*name changed)
Source: The News Minute