Nashik: A lodge manager in Jalgaon district has been arrested for allegedly providing a room to a 23-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl without verifying their identities or making mandatory entries, prompting police to invoke provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Police said that under section 21 of the Pocso Act, failing to report such offences to police is itself a severe, punishable crime. Police said scrutiny of the lodge records revealed that the manager had allotted the room without obtaining identity proof from either occupant and without recording their details in the mandatory register.
Inspector Sandeep Patil , of the Raver police station, said they found the duo in a room at a lodge on Savda Road during the inspection. “While checking the hotels and lodges in our jurisdiction, we came across a 23-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl in one of the rooms,” Patil said. “The manager had flouted the legal procedure by allocating a room to the duo without taking any ID proof or recording their entry in the lodge register, thereby intentionally enabling an environment for the exploitation of the minor,” Patil said.
The action came during a special inspection of hotels and lodges conducted by Raver police under a district-wide checking drive led by senior police officers. Officers added that the lodge manager also failed to inform police despite being legally bound to report such information. Taking note of what police described as gross negligence and active complicity, Raver police arrested the lodge manager along with the man found with the minor. A suo motu case has been registered under relevant BNS sections and provisions of the Pocso Act .