Priest arrested for allegedly raping schoolgirl

New Delhi: A 56-year-old priest of a city temple was arrested from Bihar on Thursday for allegedly raping a schoolgirl in Northeast Delhi, police said.

Sarv Narayan Jha, a resident of Nand Nagri, was arrested from Darbhanga in Bihar. He allegedly raped the 17-year-old girl on May 10, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Sanjay Kumar Jain said.

Jha, who is married and has six children, was serving as a priest at a temple in Seemapuri for the last 25 years.

Police said he used to pay regular visits to the houses of local residents to perform religious rituals. "On the day of the incident, Jha, who was known to the family of the victim and had been a regular visitor to the house for last 15 years, found her alone and allegedly sexually assaulted her," a senior police officer involved in the probe said.

He also allegedly threatened the victim, a student of class XII at a government school, with dire consequences if she told about the incident to anyone.

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However, she told her mother about the incident following which her parents filed a police complaint. A medical examination conducted at Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital confirmed sexual assault, the official said.

Jha went missing after the incident but was apprehended from his native village in Darbhanga.

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