Sexual assault in coaching center: Third accused detained at Mumbai airport

The 27-year-old defendant, together with his two younger brothers aged 25 and 24, runs a coaching center in south Mumbai where up to 40 girls from grades 7 to 12 attend courses. The three brothers are said to have sexually abused the girl, a student at the coaching center, over the past two years.

The FIR was registered based on a complaint from a child counseling center where the victim had confided in a counselor about the crimes committed against her in February this year. Although she and her mother did not want to report the matter to the police for fear of social stigmatization, the counseling centers finally approached the police on Friday.

The victim had joined the coaching center in 2022 after moving to south Mumbai with her mother. Police have learned that the older brother allegedly raped the student twice in the classroom between July 2023 and December 2023. The second brother allegedly forced her to watch adult films and molested her, while the youngest brother allegedly sexually abused her in class several times from 2022 to December 2023.

Her mother started noticing behavioral changes in December 2022 when she stopped talking to people in her coaching class and even at school. She then persuaded her daughter to go to counseling. In February of this year, the girl finally told her counselor about the repeated sexual assaults by the three brothers at the counseling center.

The counselor then approached her mother and told her about the whole ordeal. However, fearing social stigma, her mother was unwilling to file an FIR. Finally, officials from the Child Development Center approached NM Joshi Marg police station on Friday and a case was registered under relevant sections of rape, unnatural sex, harassment and criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. , 2012. The case was transferred to LT Marg police station as the victim lives in the jurisdiction.

The accused will be produced in the court on Monday, a senior officer of LT Marg police station said.