Mumbai: Six-year-old boy sexually assaulted at a public toilet

MUMBAI: On Monday afternoon, in Mumbai, at a public toilet a six-year-old boy was sexually abused by an unidentified person which has put the boy in a traumatic state of mind.

The suspect started abusing the boy sexually inside a public toilet and as the boy began to protest against the assault, he bit the child's cheek, stated the police report.

The suspect has not yet been identified by the police, but a First Information Report (FIR) under the Sections 377 (unnatural sex) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) as well as sections of the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, have been registered.

A police officer investigating the crime had said that they will speak to the boy and get a sketch of the suspect but currently the boy is distressed and they are trying to calm him down. "We are calming down the child. After that, we will try to make a sketch of the accused with the help of the child. We checked the nearby area; there is no CCTV camera which will help us to trace the accused," the police officer said.

The Oshiwara police and a unit of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, are investigating the incident as serious action is being taken against such crimes. Several teams have been formed by the police to trace the suspect.

According to the police, on Monday the six-year-old had returned home from which made the parents go out looking for their boy, going to several public locations, calling out for him.

After the parents had spent three hours searching for him, they found the boy inside a public toilet. The boy did not talk about the incident initially to his parents and went to sleep after coming back home.

However, later in the evening, he revealed to his parents that he went to a public toilet while he was on his way home from tuition classes. Inside, a stranger had forced the boy into a toilet stall, locked it from inside and sexually assaulted the child. When the boy protested, the stranger bit his cheek and then fled.

The assault had caused a state of trauma on the boy, which left him seeking refuge in the toilet and until his parents came looking for him.