A 67-year-old man was arrested in Maharashtra's Pune for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl who he stopped a few days ago while she was on her way to school and offered a chocolate to get close.
The incident took place on Friday, August 23, in a rural area on the outskirts of Pune.
The man on Friday allegedly took the girl home when she was returning from school and raped her, an official cited in a news agency PTI report said.
The incident coming to light after she opened up about the ordeal while talking at a 'good touch, bad touch' session in her school, the Pune rural police official said on Monday.
"She narrated the ordeal during the 'good touch, bad touch' session in her school on Saturday. The authorities there informed her parents, who filed a police complaint. The man was then arrested. Further probe is underway," the official said.
The incident comes amid nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor at state-run RG Kar Medical College & Hospital of West Bengal's Kolkata and the alleged sexual abuse of two four-year-old girls at a school in Badlapur town of Maharashtra's Thane, allegedly by a staffer.
A court in Thane district on Monday remanded the man arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two minor girls at the school in Badlapur town to 14-day judicial custody, a police officer said.
The accused, an attendant at the private school, was produced before a magistrate's court at Kalyan amid elaborate security arrangements after the expiry of his police custody.
The court remanded him to 14-day judicial custody and sent him to jail, said the officer.
In a related development, some members of the school management have been made accused in the case, another police officer was quoted as saying by PTI, without divulging further details.
The accused, who was employed as an attendant at the school where the incident took place earlier this month, was arrested on August 17.
As per a police complaint, he sexually abused two kindergarten girls in the washroom of the school.
Last week, angry parents of the schoolchildren and local citizens blocked railway tracks at Badlapur station for 10 hours and ransacked a local school building to protest against the incident and to demand strict punishment for the accused.
Following the protest, the Maharashtra government announced formation of a special investigation team (SIT) headed by senior IPS officer Arti Singh to probe the incident.
At least 25 police personnel were injured in stone-pelting at the railway station and other parts of Badlapur during the protest.
