CHENNAI: The city police arrested the leader of All India Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu outfit, and a woman under the Pocso Act and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, for alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl.

The arrested person was Sri Kandan alias Kodambakkam Sri, who was earlier arrested on sexual harassment charges in 2020.

Police sources said that the accused sexually abused the child several times over a two-year period at his bungalow on the East Coast Road.

The victim's mother lives in Vellore with her second husband and had sent her daughter to stay with her aunt in Kodambakkam to assist the girl's ailing father.

The aunt introduced the girl to the Sri, who lured her with gifts and abused her at his bungalow.

When the victim refused to meet him after she fell ill, the duo threatened to harm her family. After this, the girl returned to her mother in Vellore.

When the girl and her mother returned to Chennai recently, the aunt threatened her again, after which the victim confided in her mother.

Subsequently, a complaint was filed at the Mambalam AWPS.

Sri Kandan and the aunt were arrested and were produced before a magistrate court. They are remanded in judicial custody.