Alert father foils molestation bid of 7-year-old girl at Kalwa

A seven-year-old girl was saved from being molested by a male neighbour on Sunday afternoon in Kalwa when her father spotted the man holding her inappropriately. The accused was produced in court and has been remanded to police custody till Wednesday.

The accused has been identified as 26-year-old Jaychand Santosh Kumar Yadav, aka Painter. On May 10 at around 3pm, Yadav spotted the girl and called out to her.

When the girl, a fourth standard student, didn't pay heed to him, Yadav approached her. He picked her up and was about to walk away when the girl's father saw him touching her inappropriately, and shouted out.

Yadav, a married man, dropped the little girl immediately, and hung his head in silence when the girl's father quizzed him about where he was taking his daughter. The incident took place in Shivshakti Nagar at Kalwa in Thane.

The seven-year-old's father immediately filed a complaint against Yadav at Kalwa police station, where the accused was interrogated. Yadav defended himself saying that the girl knew him and even addressed him as 'mama'; he said he wanted to play with her that day, and was thus taking her to his house.

An officer with Kalwa police said: "The accused denies that he had any wrong intentions, but is currently behind bars. As per the girl's father, we have registered a case against the accused, and further investigations are on."
Kalwa cops registered a case against Yadav under IPC Section 363 (kidnapping), and under relevant sections of the Prevention Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.