Bengaluru: A 23-year-old youth was arrested and booked under POCSO Act by the Chikkajala police on the charges of attempting to sexually assault an eight-year-old minor on Tuesday evening.

The accused has been identified as Prashanth Kumar, a native of West Bengal had come down to the city a month ago and was working as a house keeping staff in a resort situated in Geddenahalli.

On Tuesday, the victim, a daughter of carpenter was playing in front of her house in Tabarahalli when the alleged attempt  took place. The accused approached the girl and told her that he will take her to meet her father, who is working in a nearby construction site. The girl agreed to accompany him and went with accused. Prashanth then took the eight-year-old to a nearby Eucalyptus groove and started undressing her.

However, the accused stopped in the middle after he noticed two persons walking around the groove and tried to flee from the scene. But the two locals, who noticed the girl lying undressed, realized something amiss and alerted other people who after a long chase nabbed the accused. Meanwhile, an alert was made and the police who rushed to the spot arrested the accused. The parents of the victim were told about the incident, who then registered a complaint with Chikkajala police.  The accused was booked under Pocso Act and was remanded to judicial custody.