Four held for sexual abuse

Thane police has arrested four accused for employing minor children to work in a hotel for meagre wages and allegedly sexually assaulting them as well. Acting on a tip-off, Thane police laid a trap and arrested the accused who are owners of the hotel.

The four accused - Arun Mudliar, Chinake Yadav, Shalindri Sharma and Salman Khan – were arrested around 2pm on Saturday. Mr Mudliar owns a small hotel near Vitthalwadi and as his hotel is not doing well, his friend Sharma suggested that they bring children from villages to work so that his expenses can be cut down. All accused then brought four children from different areas of India like UP and Nanded. These children are from a very poor background.

API P.N. Pansare said, “The main accused, Mr Mudliar, convinced the children’s parents that they would earn a good amount of money in Mumbai and he would take care of them. Later, when he brought them to Mumbai, he would give them work related to his house or hotel. He would even send these children to other companies for work on a rental basis.”

According to the complainant who is a government officer, “The children had several injuries on their body and the accused did not provide them proper medical treatment. When the children started opposing Mr Mudliar, he called a few of his friends and sexually assaulted two of them for raising their voice.”

The police said, “The incident came to light when the complainant found one of the children crying when he was sent to buy some grains. The complainant asked the boy about his problem and he revealed about the sexual assault on him. Later, the complainant came to us and we laid a trap to arrest the accused. We arrested them under IPC Section 374 for sexual assault and the Child Labour Act of 2000.