A 15-year-old girl has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by her father at gunpoint for more than five years. Following the girl’s complaint, joint teams of the Delhi and Kerala Police arrested the accused on Friday from Kottayam, where he had gone for work.
Police said the man, who hails from Kottayam, stays with his wife, 15-year-old daughter and a younger son in east Delhi’s Ashok Nagar. The girl, a Class X student, told police that her father started sexually assaulting her when she was 10 years old. She alleged that the assault continued over the next five years, and that each time, he threatened her with a knife or a gun so she would not dare reveal the ordeal to anyone.
“All these years, the girl did not open up about the sexual assault; she knew her father posed a threat to her life. But when he left for Kerala this time, she finally mustered the courage to report the matter to police,” an officer said.
According to police, the alleged sexual assault would take place when the mother was at work. “In her statement to police, the girl made some very disturbing claims. She claimed that her father would accompany her when she would take a bath, and would also sexually assault her by holding her at knife or gunpoint,” a Kerala Police officer, who did not wish to be named, said.
Police said the girl’s mother had caught the accused showing pornographic movies to the 15-year-old and her younger brother several times. “The accused would reprimand his wife and tell her to let his daughter watch such films. The mother could not gather the courage to do anything about it,” the officer said.
The officer said that the girl’s father worked in a part-time business, while her mother is a nurse at a local hospital.
Police said the man left for Kottayam a month ago to monitor the construction of a house. After the sexual assaults came to light, police said the girl was taken to a local hospital for a medical examination. “She is now being counselled,” the officer said.
Kerala Police said their counterparts from Delhi reached Ernakulam on Thursday, before leaving for Kottayam.
“A three-member Delhi Police team, headed by a sub-inspector, briefed us about the case. Our local sources were activated and we ascertained his whereabouts and arrested him,” Shaju Varghese, inspector, Kottayam (east) police station, said.
DCP (east) Ombir Singh Bishnoi said the accused is yet to be brought to Delhi for questioning. “We have arrested him under IPC Section 376 (rape) and appropriate sections of the POCSO Act,” Singh said. Police said he stayed in Delhi for the most part to look after his work, and would travel to Kottayam intermittently. So far, no criminal record has been found against him.
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