Rajasthan: Teens accuse mom’s live-in partner of rape, FIR lodged

UDAIPUR: Chittorgarh police on Wednesday booked a man for allegedly raping and molesting three minor daughters of his live-in partner for years.
The girls, who are 10, 12 and 14 years old, narrated their plight to their mother. When the woman confronted the accused, instead of mending his ways, he thrashed her and continued sexual exploitation of the minors. Finding no way, the helpless mother approached the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and after expressing inability to look after them, she gave them to the state-aided shelter home in January.
The girls have been living in the shelter home for the past four months and remained quiet and shy. At a counseling session recently, the eldest girl spoke about the ill treatment meted out by her mother's live-in partner. Upon encouragement by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the 14-year old lodged a police complaint and the sadar police registered a case under Sections 354,376 of the IPC and 3,4,7&8 of the POCSO Act.
DSP Manish Kumar said the case had been registered, medical examination of the two younger girls have been done and the accused would be nabbed soon.
Chittorgarh CWC chairman Ramesh Chandra Dashora said he received a counseling report from shelter home Aasra Vikas Sansthan on May 11 wherein the officials said the three girls living in the home had been sexually abused by their mother's live-in partner. The CWC team met the minors and a female member held counseling with them. The girls told her that their biological father lived in Bhilwara and he was a habitual drinker. Their mother left their father around 10 years ago and entered into a live-in relationship with the accused in Chittorgarh's Kumbha Nagar. The eldest and second daughter lived with their father, while the youngest one went with the mother.
The girls once overheard their biological father speaking to someone about selling them for Rs 60,000 each. They called their mother who took them with her. In Chittorgarh, the minors were sexually abused and molested by the mother’s live-in partner. The eldest girl said the accused touched her private parts, molested her and raped both younger girls several times in the last three years.
Bhojraj Singh of the shelter home said the girls were quiet and introvert since they came here. “Our counselors continuously tried to make them speak to know if they were abused or ill treated and after five months, they mustered courage to reveal the truth,” Bhojraj told TOI.
The CWC forwarded the counseling report to the sadar police station on May 21, which was kept pending for a week and finally on Wednesday night, the FIR was registered. The accused works as a homeguard and is a domestic help at a judicial officer’s home, sources said.
(The victim's identities has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)