Malda Arrest in Chakkarpur POCSO Case

GURUGRAM: A 42-year-old man was arrested from Malda in West Bengal on Friday for allegedly sexually assaulting his 17-year-old stepdaughter at a rented house in Chakkarpur in Sector 28, police said.

The girl and her mother approached the Chakkarpur police post on Wednesday. Investigators said the alleged incident took place on 8 August, when the girl's mother had gone to Malda. The teenager did not speak about it at once and told her mother only after the stepfather had left for Malda recently, police said. The family hails from Malda and has lived in Chakkarpur for several years.

FIR, arrest and court production

Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said that as soon as the woman learnt of her husband's alleged act, she came to police. Given the seriousness of the allegation, an FIR was registered on Wednesday at DLF police station in Sector 29 under Section 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which deals with aggravated sexual assault. A team was sent to Malda and arrested the suspect on Friday. He is the second husband of the victim's mother, Turan said. The team is due to bring him back to Gurugram on Saturday for production before a court.

The case remains at the allegation and investigation stage. Police have not claimed a conviction, and the accused is entitled to contest the charges in court. For the family, the Wednesday complaint and Friday arrest close the first gap between disclosure and custody. Further legal steps, including medical and statement formalities required in POCSO matters, will follow after the accused is produced. Officers have not released the man's name in the public briefing beyond the age and relationship details needed to describe the arrest.

Interstate arrests in POCSO files often turn on how quickly a local station can place a team in another state after the FIR. Here the gap from Wednesday's complaint to Friday's Malda arrest was short. Production on Saturday will start the court-supervised phase. Until then, the police account rests on the mother's complaint, the stepdaughter's disclosure, and the Section 10 booking at DLF police station. No other accused have been named in the public briefing.

Chakkarpur sits under the DLF police station catchment, which is why the FIR was registered there even though the first complaint was given at the local police post. Police have framed the arrest as a straightforward custody move after the mother and daughter came forward. The law requires careful handling of the minor's statement and medical record; those steps are separate from the public description of the Malda arrest. Readers should treat the man as an accused, not as convicted, until a court decides the case.