A 62-year-old grocery shop owner was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting minor girls from a public school in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district.
He was accused of sexually assaulting at least 15 girls aged between 9 and 13 for the past four years.
The crime came to light when the police conducted an awareness programme ‘Project Pallikoodam’ (project school) in June to focus on areas where crimes against children are prevalent.
Following the programme, one of the girl students complained to her school headmistress on Sunday that she was assaulted by the grocery shop owner located near their school in a village near Anaimalai in Coimbatore district.
After further probe, the headmistress said 14 other students came forward saying that they were also assaulted by the same accused.
The teacher then informed the police who arrested the accused and remanded him to judicial custody on Sunday.
Coimbatore rural superintendent of police V Badrinarayanan said the accused has been booked under sections 7 (sexual assault), 8 (punishment for sexual assault), 9 (aggravated sexual assault), 10 (punishment for aggravated sexual assault), and 11 (sexual harassment) read with Section 12 (punishment for sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.