NEW DELHI: A 27-year-old delivery boy working for a popular pizza outlet in Lajpat Nagar was on Sunday arrested for sexually assaulting a five-year-old child at her home near Ashram. The accused was planning to escape when he was arrested from his Dakshinpuri home.

The child's father works for a private firm in Mumbai and lives there. On Sunday, she had called her dad and told him she wanted to eat pizza. The doting father had ordered one online to be delivered at his Delhi home.

The delivery boy, identified as Amit Kumar, arrived around 11.45 am at the third-floor apartment for a home delivery.

In her statement to the police, the child said that while her grandmother went inside the flat to get the payment, she waited on the stairs.

The accused apparently switched off the lights suddenly and picked her up. "The man kissed and sexually assaulted her. He covered her mouth, muffling her screams," a family member said. Before her grandmother returned to the door, Kumar switched on the lights and let the child go.

The family later said the child bottled up, keeping to herself, refusing to eat the pizza. Worried, her mother and grandmother asked her why. This was when she broke down and narrated her ordeal, police officers said. The women immediately alerted other family members who stay in the same building.

They rushed to the pizza outlet looking for the deliveryman, but store officials could not trace him. Soon after, the family registered a case at Lajpat Nagar police station. An FIR under sections of Protection of Children against Sexual Offences and rape under Section 376 IPC was registered and the child taken for medical examination where doctors confirmed sexual assault .

Three police teams were sent to Dakshinpuri and Amit, who was working for the pizza outlet for two months, was arrested from his home. Kumar has admitted committing the crime and was sent to 14 days judicial custody. CCTV footage showing him enter the building helped police identify him. The child was sent to an NGO for counselling after which she went to a relative's house.

The pizza outlet officials said they were cooperating with the police for a thorough investigation. "There's zero tolerance for such unlawful behaviour and we have terminated the services of the employee," a company spokesperson said.

"Our stringent policies on sexual harassment apply to all employees. All employees are personally responsible for their actions and must ensure that their behaviour does not constitute sexual harassment, whether it happens deliberately or inadvertently. We take strict actions if any of our policies are compromised," a statement issued by the company said.

