Locals thrash lecturer caught molesting 2-year-old

Angry residents beat up a 44-year-old lecturer after he was caught sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl in Kothanur, East Bengaluru, on Monday night.

Mathew, of Kerala, has been living in a rented house in Kothanur for the past two years. He worked as a lecturer at a private college in Avalahalli. The girl is the daughter of a construction worker living next door to Mathew, a police officer said.

When the girl was playing outside, Mathew lured her into his house with chocolates and began sexually assaulting her. Her screams brought the neighbours and her parents, who broke the door and caught the man red-handed.

Locals then thrashed Mathew before turning him over to the Kothanur police who arrested him based on the parents' complaint and booked him under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He has been remanded in judicial custody.