Just months after the murder of seven-year-old Pradyumn Thakur allegedly by a teenager, sparked debates on juvenile justice laws in the country, a teenager has been arrested in Bengaluru for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl. The incident took place at Amarjyothi Layout in Ashwath Nagar on 28 December.
The Sampigehalli police detained the boy after the some neighbours caught him, and he has been sent to a state-run remand home.
While police are proceeding with case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POSCO), the boy’s father insisted that he is mentally unstable and that he has been undergoing treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) since 2011.
The incident occurred at around 10.30 am on the terrace of a neighbour. The boy, who had taken the girl on the pretext of showing her a chick, ended up biting her. The boy had stripped the girl and was removing his trousers, the Deccan Herald reported quoting an eyewitness. Residents gathered at the terrace after the neighbour notified them.
The neighbors called the police, who took a statement from the girl’s mother, and registered a complaint of sexual harassment under Section 12 of the POSCO Act, which entails three years of imprisonment along with a fine.
Soon after, the police officials produced the boy before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and immediately sent him to the remand home.
The boy's father produced certificates and drug prescriptions from NIMHANS as proof that the boy’s actions were not intentional. As per the medical reports, the boy had been taking treatment for ADHD and mental retardation for the last seven years. A senior police official said that they have approached experts for opinion on the medical condition of the teenager.
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