Mangaluru: Man held for sexually assaulting 2-year-old girl, trying to kill her

MANGALURU: City police have arrested a 38-year-old man for allegedly sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl and then trying to kill her by throwing her into a saltwater fish tank in a fish processing unit.
The accused has been arrested and identified as Chandan.
City police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said that on Monday morning they got information from a hospital that a two-year-old girl who had survived a drowning incident had been brought by her parents for treatment.
Officers rushed to the hospital. Doctors treating the kid told the investigating officers that not only was it a case of attempted drowning but there were signs that indicated that the child had been sexually assaulted too.
Nearly 80 migrant labourers, mostly from Bihar, are engaged in cutting and salting fish at a fish processing unit. Those from Bihar belong to about 30 families and there are about 25 children up to six years, who are taken care of in a room.
On questioning, the parents, working as labourers and into fish cutting, they said that they were at the unit till about 4pm on Sunday and had stepped out to purchase a fan between 4pm and 6pm. When they returned they realised that their daughter was missing. They searched for nearly two hours. Around 9 pm, they found the child lying unconscious in a fish tank that had saltwater in it. The parents rushed the child to a private clinic. On further inquiry, people working at the unit said that they had seen Chandan taking the child with him at around 4 pm. He was immediately picked and questioned and admitted to the crime.
The commissioner said that the child is responding to treatment and has regained consciousness. Saltwater had entered her lungs, he added.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)