Pune: The city police will start taking preventive action against 37 repeat sexual offenders from Tuesday.The Pune city police zeroed in on them after studying cases of sexual assault on minor girls and women on Sunday and Monday. Additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh told TOI, “We will take strong action against the 37 repeat offenders in sexual assault cases. These men have committed two or more offences in the past 10 years, as per crime records. The action is aimed at preventing crimes against girls and women by these offenders.”The exercise followed the arrest of a 65-year-old daily wage worker, Bhimrao Kamble, on Saturday for allegedly sexually assaulting and murdering a three-year-old girl in Nasrapur. During the probe, the Pune Rural police revealed that Kamble was earlier arrested in two sexual assault cases but was acquitted in both.The Pune city police said 193 other men involved in sexual assault cases against minor girls were booked or arrested in other crimes such as body offences and thefts. Deshmukh said, “The list of these men, along with their addresses, has been provided to the local police stations for further legal action. The police stations can either arrest these men under provisions of preventive detention or take undertakings in the form of bonds of good behaviour from them.“A person can be kept in prison for a period ranging from 15 days to one month under preventive detention, the police said.
