Swimming coach held for sexual abuse of 7-yr-old boy

Mumbai: A 24-year-old swimming coach with a sports academy in Wadala was arrested late on Tuesday for allegedly sexually abusing a seven-year-old boy in the changing room.
The child has been hospitalized and given counselling, said his mother.
Thr coach, Kandivli resident Sunil Kumar Sulu, has been booked under the Indian Penal Code section for unnatural offences as well as the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSOA), which deals with child sexual offences.He has been remanded to police custody.
The institute has condemed the incident and said it stands with the victim’s family.
According to the complaint, the victim’s parents had admitted the child to the institute for swimming lessons. His mother would regularly take him to the institute in the evening and wait for the child in the hall outside. “On Tuesday evening, when I went to pick him up, I learnt that he was in the men’s washroom. When he came out, told me that the coach, Sunil, had sexually abused him inside the washroom on the pretext of changing his clothes,” said the victim’s mother.
She immediately called up her husband who is abroad on work to inform him of the crime, and then approached Wadala Truck Terminals police station to register an offence.
“We have booked the coach under POCSOA and investigations are going on,” said N Ambika, deputy commissioner of police (Zone IV).
Jay Shah, director of the institute, said, “The family did not approach us; they filed a police complaint. We were not aware about the incident until the police arrived to arrest the coach. He was employed with us for the past seven months. We condemn the act and we stand with the victim’s family.”
The boy’s father called up TOI on Wednesday and said the institute should conduct background checks of coaches. “I feel the coach must have committed the heinous act on other children as well. Our biggest concern is that we parents blindly trust these institutes because of their name but they do not do background checks of coaches, though children, some as young as three years old, attend these classes,” he alleged.