Hang him, the child told police

BENGALURU: When Annapoorn amma first saw a weeping Nethra loitering %near her house in a north Bengaluru locality off Tumakuru Road on her morning walk on Wednesday, the first thing that struck her was the blood on her garments.
The 65-year-old grandmother's first thought was that Nethra (name changed) was a big girl now. She knew Nethra was around 12 years old, and an inmate of a nearby orphanage.She turned to her eldest daughter Revathy, who was accompanying her, and told her to buy hesarubele (moong dal) to make the traditional sweets given to a girl who reaches puberty, and do the ritualistic puja.
They took the child home, and on examining her closely, Annapoornamma was aghast to find bruises on her body and realized she had gone through a nightmare. She gently questioned Nethra, who poured out her story of sexual abuse and physical torture she gone through with the founder-chairman of the orphanage, SM Vijayraj.
"I used to see Nethra passing by my house every day, on her way to school. It took me a while to recognize her as one of the girls from the orphanage. She told me she had run away from the home because 'Vijay Uncle' had been hurting her.% My daughter Revathy too has a 12-year-old daughter, so we gave her some of %her clothes. It was then that I saw the bruises all over the child's body," recalls Annapoornamma.
The family decided to stand up for %the child and pursue the matter to its logical conclusion. They took Nethra to the jurisdictional police station and within hours, Vijayraj was behind bars.
"In the police station, Nethra proved to be really brave. She kept saying, 'Hang him'. She wasn't scared of police. She had enough of Vijayraj," Annapoornamma recalled.
"Revathy was deter mined that the predator should be brought to book. We were all so angry. She did everything, from going to the cops to the corporator. She has been running around trying to get justice for the girl. We are afraid he will come %out from jail and the children will have to pay for it," she said. Her son-in-law, too, came out in support o f Nethra.
A FAMILY OF STRONG WOMEN
For Annapoornamma, Nethra is just like her grandchildren. The unlettered, large-hearted homemaker spends most of her time looking after them. Having brought up three girls, her instincts instantly kicked in when she saw Nethra standing alone, weeping. Today, at 65 and going slightly deaf, Annapoornamma is proud of her strong-willed daughters.