LUCKNOW: In another incident of sexual offence against minors, a senior scientist at the National Institute for Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases under Japanese Leprosy Mission for Asia (JALMA) was arrested in Agra on Tuesday for attempting to rape two minor girls, five and six years of age, on Monday.
According to police sources, Dr Vishnu Dutt Sharma, 62, the head of the department of microbiology, was arrested on the charge of trying to rape the two minors, one of whom is the daughter of Dr Sharma’s junior. The scientist and the families of the victims stay on the premises of the institute.
As per the district police authorities, the matter came to light and reported under Tajganj police station by the parents of the victims on Tuesday. “The facts mentioned in the report were verified and found to be true. Consequently, a case was registered against the scientist under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act,” said superintendent of police (city) Kunwar Anupam Singh.
The sources said that the scientist had allegedly been making advances to the girls for the last two months. The parents of one of the victims claimed that on Monday, Sharma wooed their daughter with chocolates and toffees and took her to the roof of the institute’s residential wing.
Searching for her daughter, when victim’s mother called out her name and the girl came down from the roof top narrating how the scientist was trying to exploit her sexually. Sharma reportedly fled the spot and the girl’s mother immediately disclosed the matter to the family.
After this incident came to light, the other victim also narrated the same tale. Sharma is scheduled to retire in September. He has a son settled in US and a daughter who is a doctor in Delhi. However, the institute’s authorities were exasperated over the incident and the arrest of HoD, Microbiology. Sharma had joined the institute as research assistant around 40 years back and has 109 research papers to his credit.