Hanumanthanagar police have rescued a 11-year-old girl sexually abused by a 25-year-old gym trainer on Monday.
Police arrested Prabhakar Nayak, a resident of Srinagar in South Bengaluru, and a native of Raichur district.
Preliminary police investigations show that Nayak has been running a gym in Hanumanthanagar for the last two years. He befriended the schoolgirl on Instagram a few months ago. She visited his gym a few times.
He started abusing her a few days ago. On Monday, she went missing from her house around 7 am. The parents approached the police and filed a complaint. Police collected details of the places she usually visited. They learnt that she used to go to the gym occasionally.
Before approaching the police, the parents had contacted Nayak to check if their daughter was in the gym. He told them he had no idea where she was.
Police started searching for the girl and finally traced her to Nayak's house by afternoon. When they knocked on the door, he didn't respond. They forced him to open the door and rescued the girl. By then, he had abused her but police rescued her from further harm. She was with him for seven hours, a senior officer said.
Police arrested Nayak, who confessed to having taken the girl to his house multiple times.
Nayak was produced before the court on Tuesday and was remanded in judicial custody. He had been arrested under the Pocso Act.
Police are verifying if Nayak has abused other girls in the past. Police asked parents to monitor the activities of their children on social media.
Published 14 June 2023, 20:54 IST