Grocer held for sexual assault on minor

A 35-year-old owner of a provision store was arrested on Monday for raping a minor girl in his shop in Hanumanthanagar. The suspect, identified as Nataraj, has been booked under several sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.

According to the police, at around 5 pm on Saturday, when the nine-year-old girl was returning home from her grandparents’ house, Nataraj lured her with toffees into his provision store at Raghavendra Block in Srinagar and sexually assaulted her. The victim later complained of abdominal pain to her parents, who rushed her to a nearby hospital as she was bleeding.

Doctors at the hospital confirmed that the child was sexually assaulted and a medico-legal case was registered and forwarded to the Hanumanthanagar police station on Sunday morning. Police visited the hospital and collected details about the incident. They also met the girl’s parents. But the store was closed and the suspect had fled by the time police reached there. But Nataraj was arrested on Monday evening.

“We verified the suspect’s antecedents and found no previous cases against him. He is married and lives with his family in Srinagar,” said S D Sharanappa, DCP (South). Further investigations are on.