On Sunday, Mumbai Police recorded six instances of sexual abuse and molestation involving children aged 4 to 16. Authorities swiftly made arrests in five of the cases.
In one incident, Sakinaka police apprehended a 73-year-old man accused of exposing himself to a four-year-old girl. The arrest followed a complaint filed by the girl’s mother.
The second case involved Vanrai police in the Goregaon area, where a 21-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stalking and harassing a 16-year-old girl through phone calls since January 2021. The accused also faces a separate kidnapping case. Meanwhile, the Andheri police registered a case against an unidentified person who allegedly made lewd comments to a 12-year-old girl on her way to school on January 6.
In the fourth case, the Bangur Nagar police arrested a 30-year-old electrician for stalking and molesting a 15-year-old girl. The accused had visited the girl’s house for work days earlier, and when she was out on Saturday, he allegedly stalked and molested her. The girl reported the incident to her parents, leading to the registration of an FIR.
Two Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) cases were filed by the Kalachowki police in Central Mumbai. In one case, a 60-year-old man was arrested for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl, while another 50-year-old man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting another 12-year-old girl.
Mumbai Police reported that 1,005 cases of child sexual abuse and molestation were registered under the POCSO Act in 2023 until November. Comparatively, in the same period in 2022, 1,051 cases were registered, according to available data.