Music teacher arrested for molesting minor student in Mumbai

A 55-year-old guitar teacher from Mumbai has been arrested for allegedly molesting a minor student, police said on Monday. The accused, identified as Bharat Panchal alias Raju, sexually abused the victim for three years between 2007 and 2010 at her home in suburban Andheri when he used to give her music lessons, a police official said.

The victim was around nine years old when the accused began molesting her. She later went to the US for higher studies when she was 12, he said. The victim, now studying in a college in the US, arrived here on Sunday and lodged an FIR against the accused. After recording her statement, the Oshiwara police arrested Panchal, the official said.

The victim in her statement alleged that the accused used to molest her and speak in vulgar language during music lessons, he said. "We have arrested the teacher under Indian Penal Code Sections 354 (molestation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty of a woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation). It is an old case of the offense that took place between 2007 and 2010, before the victim went to the US," Oshiwara police station's senior inspector Dayanand Bangar said. The police were trying to find out if the accused molested other students also, another official said.

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