Mumbai: 65-year-old man arrested for sexually assaulting 9-year-old girl

In a shocking incident, a 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a 65-year-old man in Mumbai's Sakinaka area on Friday.

The accused has been identified as Hussain Patel.

According to the police, the incident took place when the victim along with her classmate was returning home.

Patel who was standing on the road called both of them under the pretext of giving them chocolate and took them to a secluded place where he started touching the victim inappropriately.

"Scared by Patel's behaviour, her friend ran from the spot, and informed her parents who then rushed to the spot and brought the victim home. However, Patel had fled from the spot till the time parents reached there. The parents then lodged the complaint at Sakinaka police station," said a police officer.

 "The accused had left the city and was staying at his hometown in Solapur. We have arrested him," he added.

According to the statistics provided by Mumbai police, 422 cases were registered in 2013; while 2014 saw 678 cases; 803 cases were recorded in 2015 and 908 cases in 2016.

A total of 2,813 cases have been registered in the past five years under section 376 of the IPC and sections 4, 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act.