A 24-year-old man was caught while he was trying to rape a four-year-old girl in West Delhi's Uttam Nagar area Monday morning.
The accused was known to the girl's family and was living two-three houses away from the girl's house.
He took the girl to a nearby park while she was playing outside her house in the Hastsal area where he tried to rape her between 11 am and noon. A passerby saw the incident and raised an alarm.
People from the vicinity gathered there and thrashed the accused who was later handed over to the police.
A case under section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) and relevant sections of POCSO has been registered against the 24-year-old, said a senior police officer.
The girl's parents and the accused are neighbours in Hastasal and come from the same village in Bihar, added the officer. The accused is a distant relative of the girl's family, police said.
