Metro contract labourer held for attempting to molest minor girl at Nigdi Shiva temple
Nigdi police detained a man working on a nearby metro project after CCTV footage showed him grabbing a girl inside the temple's sanctum; he is booked under the BNS and POCSO Act.
A case that has shocked residents has come to light in Nigdi, in Pune's Pimpri-Chinchwad. A minor girl who had gone to a Shiva temple for darshan was allegedly subjected to an attempt at molestation. The entire incident was captured on the temple's CCTV camera. Anger is running high not only in Nigdi but across Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The girl had gone to the local Shiva temple in Nigdi for darshan, as she does every day. In the sanctum, she bowed before Mahadev. As she rose after touching the feet of the deity, the accused, who had allegedly followed her into the temple, suddenly pounced on her, grabbed her hand and tried to drag her towards a corner.
The girl showed courage and presence of mind and somehow freed herself. The temple's CCTV camera clearly shows all of this, and the footage is what exposed the accused's act.
On receiving information about the incident, Nigdi police acted swiftly and detained the accused immediately. According to the FIR, he is Vishal Singh, a young man from another state who works as a contract labourer on the metro construction work under way near the temple.
A case has been registered against him at Nigdi police station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for outraging modesty and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Senior Police Inspector Mahesh Bansode of Nigdi police station said that, given the gravity of the incident, the police had put the accused in shackles immediately. He said a case had been registered against him under the outraging modesty and POCSO provisions, and that the police were pursuing further legal investigation in the case swiftly.
The police have appealed to all parents to talk to their children and to tell them about the numbers 112 (emergency helpline) and 1098 (Childline) to seek help immediately in such situations.
The incident has once again raised, with some seriousness, the question of background checks on workers employed on large public and infrastructure projects. Citizens are asking whether police verification of such contract labourers had been carried out, and whether the contractor and the administration overlooked this aspect of safety.
