Mangaluru : The Mangaluru Police on Monday, arrested a 38-year-old man on charges of sexual assault on a two-year-old girl and throwing her into a saltwater fish tank of a fish processing unit.

The arrested identified as Chandan.

City police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said, “At 8am on Monday, we received information that a two-year-old girl child is feared drowned. The officers rushed to the hospital where the child is being treated. On holding discussions with the doctors, the investigating officers realised that along with drowning, attempts were made to sexually assault the child.”

Nearly 80 migrant labourers mostly from Bihar are engaged in cutting and salting fish at a fish processing unit. The parents of the child told the police that they were at the unit till about 4pm on Sunday and had stepped out to purchase a fan between 4pm and 6pm.

When they returned they realised that their child was missing. They started searching for the child for nearly two hours. At around 9pm, they found the child lying unconscious in a fish tank that had saltwater in it. They tried hard to help her get consciousness. The survivor was rushed to the hospital.

On further inquiry, the people working at the unit said that they had seen the accused taking the baby at around 4pm.