A cleric has been apprehended for the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl in a mosque located in the Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh, citing information from the police. The incident reportedly transpired when the girl attended an Urdu class taught by Maulana Muntazir Alam, 28, at a mosque in the Kurara area of the district.
The girl had gone to the mosque with her cousins to learn Arabic and Udru from the imam. Alam allegedly took the girl to his room in the mosque where he raped her. As her screams drew the attention of the others, the imam ran away.
Allegedly, he provided a toffee to her younger brother, instructing him to wait outside the mosque during the commission of the crime. Subsequently, upon reaching home, the girl disclosed the incident to her parents, who promptly notified the police.
Her father, a truck driver, was in Banda district at the time of the incident.
The Station House Officer of Kurara, Sri Prakash Yadav, stated that an FIR has been filed under the pertinent sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The accused, hailing from Bihar, has been taken into custody, as mentioned in the report.
In a separate incident in Bihar, a school cab driver was apprehended for allegedly sexually assaulting two five-year-old girls in Begusarai district on Tuesday. The occurrence took place in a village falling under the jurisdiction of the Virpur police station in Begusarai. The accused carried out the assault after picking up the two girls from a private school with the intention of dropping them home.
According to reports, during the journey, the accused stopped the vehicle in a secluded area and purportedly subjected the girls to sexual assault. Additionally, he recorded video clips of the crime and issued threats of severe consequences if they disclosed the incident to anyone.
Following the assault, the alleged driver dropped both girls off at their respective homes. Upon sharing their harrowing experience with their parents, a family member of one of the girls pursued the driver and successfully apprehended him. Subsequently, the accused was handed over to the police. The incident triggered widespread outrage in the village, leading to a violent mob setting the school cab ablaze.
SDPO of Sadar Begusarai, Amit Kumar, said, “The local police of Virpur immediately reached the spot and arrested the accused. He is booked under the POCSO Act. The accused is associated with the private school for three years. We are also investigating whether the accused had made the video clips or not”. “We have asked the school operator to clarify whether they have done the verification of the accused or not,” he said.
