The Neelankarai All Women’s Police Station (AWPS) on Friday, February 2, arrested a man for sexually assaulting three minor girls repeatedly, for a period of two years, in Chennai.

The man, John Yovan (29), was nabbed by one of the three special teams formed by the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) and was identified as the assaulter by the survivors, said Valarmathi, Sub-Inspector (SI) of the station. “A concerned officer from the childline has taken custody of the minor girls and they were taken for a medical examination on Friday. The assault has been ascertained,” she added.

On February 1, the Neelankarai AWPS filed a First Information Report (FIR) under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against unknown person(s). The FIR was filed hours after TNM reported on the alleged assault and the police’s failure to file an FIR, despite one of the parents approaching them on January 23.

According to a police source, the girls, aged seven, 10, and 12, were reportedly escorted to the unknown man repeatedly for a span of two years by a nine-year-old boy who also attends the same primary school. The police had been questioning the nine-year-old boy since January 23. Child activist Devaneyan, also alleged that the minor boy was physically assaulted by the police in the name of inquiry. But the police denied these allegations.

The survivors hadn’t spoken of the assault since the assaulter had allegedly threatened to kill them and their families. However, recently, when a fourth girl was escorted to the assaulter along with the three survivors, she escaped and informed her parents. When the parents spoke to the three survivors, they opened up about the repeated assaults, a source close to the children said. 

The FIR against John has been registered under section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 5(l) (repeated penetrative sexual assault on a child), 5(m) (penetrative sexual assault on a child below 12 years) and section 6(1) (punishment for aggravated sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.