Bangalore, July 22: A three-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a juvenile in a village 30 km from here while her parents were away from home, police said Tuesday.

“The incident occurred late Friday when the 16-year-old accused sexually assaulted the child, taking advantage of her parents’ absence from home at Thatteguppe village,” Ramanagara district police superintendent Anupam Agarwal told over phone.

Police registered a case against the accused, who is absconding, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act, on a complaint filed by the girl’s mother.

“We have rushed police teams to surrounding villages to hunt for the accused, who stays near the girl’s home,” Agarwal said.

Her mother lodged the complaint Tuesday after she got the child examined by a local doctor who found her sexually abused.

“We have admitted the child at St. John’s hospital in Bangalore as she is in a serious condition. We will conduct a medical test to check if she was sexually assaulted only after she recovers from illness, as she had recently undergone heart surgery,” Agarwal said.

The accused was identified as the son of a Thalgatpura gram panchayat member.

When the girl’s parents returned home and asked the accused why he was there and what was he doing, he told them he was helping their child pass urine and fled the spot.

The latest heinous crime has outraged the villagers, coming as it does within three weeks after a six-year-old student was allegedly raped by a skating coach in an elite school in the city’s eastern suburb.