CHINSURAH: The imam of a mosque at Namazgarh in under Hooghly Mogra police station went absconding after a van rickshaw owner complained to police that the cleric had allegedly raped his 10-year-old daughter.

In the complaint, the father Qurban Mollah said his daughter had broken down on Friday evening after suffering Sheikh Sarfuddin's brutality for days.

"My daughter used to would study Arabic at the mosque along with other children. Of late, she had become quiet and looked terrified when leaving home for lessons. I thought that it was perhaps because she was unable to cope with studies. But on Thursday evening, she broke down, unable to bear the torture any longer. She said the imam Sk Sarfuddin had been physically abusing her for several days," the father alleged.

Additional inspector in charge of Mogra PS, Ashesh Biswas, said a police team was on the lookout for Mollah, who had fled after learning that the victim's father was filing a complaint. "We will probe the allegation. The child is being sent for medical examination," he said.