A 70-year-old retired sub-inspector from Athikulam, in Madurai, has been taken in for questioning by the Thallakulam police on Saturday on charges of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old.

The girl told her parents what happened, following which a mob gathered outside his house and hurled abuses at him. However, Thiraviyam’s – the accused’s – wife stopped them and locked her husband inside the house.

The residents informed the Thallakulam police, who came to the spot and took Thiraviyam in for questioning.

Videos accessed by TNM show angry residents of the locality demanding that Thiraviyam come out, while police attempted to pacify them. Some are seen hurling abuses at Thiraviyam and shouting angrily at his wife.

“If it was someone from the general public, things would have been different. They have taken him in for an inquiry quietly as he is part of the police fraternity,” a resident of the area said.

The number of cases of sexual assault is on the rise in the state, with another case having come to light on Saturday of a 16-year-old who was sexually assaulted by a group of men, including a man she was in a relationship with.

This also comes on the heels of an 11-year-old child who was sexually assaulted by multiple men at a gated community in the Ayanavaram, Chennai. The child, who is hearing impaired, was apparently lured by the guards and workers in the complex after school, and assaulted. Seventeen alleged perpetrators, ranging from a 66-year-old liftman to many security guards in their twenties, were arrested by the All Women’s Police station in the locality on Monday.