Less than 24 hours after he sexually assaulted a minor girl in his vehicle and attempted to murder her, a 34-year-old bus driver landed into the custody of the Bhayandar police.
According to the police, they received a complaint from the parents of the four-year-old girl that their daughter had gone missing while playing inside a luxury bus which was parked near their tenement in the Bhola Nagar area of Bhayandar (west) on Sunday afternoon.
Sensing the seriousness of the issue, a police team including PSI Kiran Valvi immediately reached the spot and started investigations. The team learnt that the toddler was playing in the bus with other children. However all other children except the girl had apparently alighted from the bus, indicating the involvement of the driver behind the mysterious disappearance.
Further investigations led to the arrest of the driver from the Manikpur area of Vasai. After rounds of sustained interrogations, the driver confessed of sexually assaulting the girl inside the bus and attempted to strangulate her. He squeezed the unconscious girl into a sack and had dumped her at an isolated spot in Valiv.
The girl has been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, where her condition is said to be stable. Apart from slapping sections of the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the police have booked the accused under the relevant section of the IPC for rape and attempt to murder. PSI Manisha Patil is conducting further investigations into the case.
