A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped in her daycare centre in Mumbai's Thane region by a 42-year-old ATM security guard after her mother dropped her there.
The accused, identified as Dashrath Kamble, came to the daycare and asked the little girl to accompany him to an isolated place under the pretext of teaching her something. He took her to an isolated location on the daycare premises then raped the girl, news agency PTI reports.
The accused was working as a security guard at an ATM nearby and hence he had easy access to the centre and the children.
The incident came to light on Sunday evening when the child came home and her mother noticed something unusual in her behaviour. Upon questioning the girl narrated her ordeal.
The parents lodged a police complaint, which was acted upon and the accused was arrested and charged with rape, under the Indian Penal Code and various sections of the POCSO Act.
Unfortunately, there have been instances in the recent past where children have gone through similar ordeals in schools where they are supposed to be in a sheltered environment.
In August, a five-year-old girl in South Delhi was raped by the sweeper in a private school she studied in. The little girl was raped for several days before she told her parents that her abdomen was hurting. They took her to the doctor after which they found injuries on her body. The doctor suggested that she could be raped after conducting a medical examination.
The parents then informed the police about the possibility of rape. The girl spoke to a counsellor from an NGO and confessed that the sweeper at the school used to take her to isolated locations in the campus for many days.
