04 October,2024 11:36 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan Khan
The girl failed to get through her mentally unwell mother about the sexual abuse at the hands of her father. Sourced Photo
The Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 3 has arrested her 46-year-old man for alleged sexual abuse of his minor daughter. According to the crime branch officials, a man had approached the Tardeo Police claiming his 14-year-old daughter had gone missing and apprehended that the girl might have been kidnapped. The crime branch also launched a search for the girl after the report was filed on October 2.
A crime branch official said that the girl was traced near Mahalaxmi Railway station on Thursday. The girl was taken to crime branch Unit 3 and the female officer who had accompanied the girl recorded her statement. "She revealed that she had been sexually exploited by her father for the past five years. Not wanting the sexual exploitation to continue, she left the house never wanting to return," an officer said.
Taking cognizance of the information, the crime branch arrested the father of the victim and booked him under various sections of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO) and BNS. The officials have said that when the team of the crime branch reached the girl's house, he got scared. The police found that the girl's mother was mentally unwell and she had no clue what was happening to her daughter.
"The minor tried to explain the exploitation to her mother, but she couldn't understand what the minor was saying. The girl was fed up with the exploitation and fled her house. She wanted to go along with her friend, but we traced her near the Mahalaxmi railway station and handed her over to Tardeo Police station," an officer said.
The Tardeo Police will counsel the girl with the help of the Nirbhaya team and she will be given in the custody of the NGO, or she will be kept at a children's rehab centre.
Meanwhile, the Badlapur school has resumed operations, with students playing and guards chatting at the gate. However, beneath this surface, a tangible tension exists. Since the horrible events of August 12 and 13, when a school sweeper sexually abused two four-year-old girls, the town has been shocked. Students and parents have expressed concern about the school's delayed response and the absence of its principal and other functionaires. As the school attempts to resume its routines, a common sentiment reverberates through the halls: "It's not the same."
