VELLORE: A 13-year-old girl who had stepped out of her house to answer a call of nature at a village in Vellore district was abducted by three men, who were drinking nearby, and taken to a quarry where they took turns raping her.
The girl's father went looking for her when she didn't return home and heard her cries at the quarry, which was not far from their house. The rapists fled when they saw him coming.
The rape happened on the night of Nov 16, but the Vellore all-women police registered a case only on Nov 19 after the girl's family members picketed the Anaikattu police station. The family said that when the girl's father first went to the Anaikattu police, they refused to register a complaint saying Pallikonda police had jurisdiction over the crime scene.
After the all-women police registered a complaint, Veerappan, 28, Ilamathan, 28, and Chinraj, 30, were arrested on Wednesday night from a hideout in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. They have been remanded in judicial custody.
‘Accused booked under different sections of Pocso’Vellore Superintendent of Police NMathivanan said the rape survivor’s father lodged a complaint on Nov 19, and police swung into action immediately and arrested all three accused within a day. “We booked them under different sections of the Pocso Act,” said Mathivanan.
Vellore AWPS booked them under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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