CHENNAI: A 15-year-old horse handler at Marina beach was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl during a ride.
After being abandoned by his parents, the accused, a school dropout, has been working as a daily-wage helper with a horse owner at the beach, said police sources.
On Saturday evening, a family of six from Chromepet visited the beach. The girl spotted the teenager with his horse near the service road and took the ride.
However, instead of staying near the service road where the family waited, the boy led the girl towards the seashore, nearly 400 metres away, where the family could not see them. When the family grew worried and rushed to the shore, the boy had already returned to the service road with the child.
Noticing visible distress on the girl's face, her family asked her what had happened. She allegedly told them that the boy sexually assaulted her during the ride. Enraged, the family and bystanders attacked the boy, before the horse owner pulled him away from the crowd.
After a complaint, the boy was taken in for a medical examination, detained, and produced before a probation officer on the directions of the Child Welfare Committee. Further investigation is under way.