Parents arrested for rape of minor daughter for months

KOLKATA: A Class-XI girl of a reputable school in Dum Dum has lodged a complaint against her parents for raping and sexually assaulting her over the past few months and trying to force her into prostitution.
Based on the complaint, officers of Dum Dum police station have arrested the father, a small-time businessman and the mother - who is now married to another person - under multiple sections of Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) early on Tuesday.Both were produced before a Barasat court and were sent to judicial custody till October 23. The girl has been sent to a government home.
According to the complaint, (a copy of which is in possession with TOI) the girl alleges that on January this year while her mother's current husband was away at work, the mother and the girl's biological father took her to Digha, where the man allegedly raped her seven times in two days. "The girl alleged that when she approached her mother, she allegedly told her that her father was getting her ready to become a prostitute and she should cooperate with him. They even threatened her with dire consequences if she told about the assault to anyone," said Sohini Adhikari, the lawyer, who helped the girl to lodge the complaint and get her tormentors behind bars.
Helpless and afraid, the girl could not speak up about the torture to anyone until last Monday, when the girl's mother asked her to accompany an unknown man to which she disagreed. "The mother then disrobed her and tried to take photographs. She also threatened to publish them if she didn't agree. Later, the girl was thrown outside the house. While sitting outside, she came across a friend and her private tutor to whom she divulged her experiences. Soon, they contacted me and we took her to the police station," said Adhikari.
The teacher, who rescued her, said the girl was shaking in fear and took some time before opening up about the the torture. "She used to be a brilliant student but she messed up her board results and could only score 50% marks. I wondered what troubled her but she never told me. It was only on Monday that she broke down," said the teacher.
In her two-page handwritten complaint, the girl gave vivid description of the tortures, which she underwent both at her father and mother's place. "After my parents got divorced two-and-half-years ago, I started staying with my father. Unable to bear the torture, I had to shift to my mother's place, who has relations with several other men and has been forcing me to join prostitution," she wrote in the complaint.
Based on the complaint, police picked up the victim's early on Tuesday and then arrested her father from his Shyamnagar residence. "We have had a medical test conducted on the girl and have registered her statement. It is very rare on the part of parents to rape their own child. We have booked them under stringent sections and would ensure the parents are punished," said an officer of Dum Dum police station.
The duo was booked under section 8 (penetrative sexual assault) and 12 (sexual harassment) of Pocso act and IPC sections 376 (rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).