KOLKATA: A 38-year-old pool car driver ferrying students of a reputable south Kolkata girls’ school was arrested on Thursday evening for allegedly molesting and abusing a three-and-a-half-year-old. On Friday, Kumkum Sinha, special
Pocso judge, sent the driver to police custody till September 3.
The girl has been going to school in the same pooled car for past few months.
According to police, on Thursday, the child told her mother that she felt uneasy when the driver asked her to sit on his lap while he was driving. Police sources said the child’s mother lodged an FIR alleging that the girl was made to sit in the driver’s lap and was abused after the other students were dropped off.
“When she told us about the incident, we called the driver to the police station. Initially, he denied every allegation and claimed that there has not been a single complaint against him so far. He has been driving a pooled car for the last three years,” an officer said.
The driver reportedly claimed that the child always insisted on sitting beside the window, so he made her sit in his lap to prevent her from falling down. The driver alleged that the girl’s parents had been trying to victimise him as they had a tiff with him over timings.
Police have slapped Pocso charges and penal sections under IPC.
The girl’s family, residents of a north Kolkata apartment complex, refused to talk TOI.
Public prosecutor Tamal Mukherjee said, “The man was entrusted by the parents to take their daughter to school and bring her back. The same man has done a heinous crime by breaking the faith and abusing the kid. It is not only a social crime, but a reflection of perversion and an evil mind.”
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