Representative Image.
Dewas: An 11-year-old girl, Riddhi (name changed), facing sexual abuse from her stepfather wrote out her ordeal on the walls of her home, seeking strength to counter the trauma from her dead mother.
A student of class VII, she was living with her stepfather in a shanty along with her younger sister.
The girl has alleged that she was repeatedly harassed by the stepfather, who works as a daily wage labourer. She alleged that he used to beat up her up and also tried on several occasions to sexually assault her.
One day, a neighour hearing the cries dialled child helpline, and the volunteers soon reached the house and took the girls in their possession after hearing their account of the harassment.
On the complaint of the volunteers, Hatpiplya police arrested the stepfather and charged him under section 354 of IPC and section 9/10 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 -both non-bailable sections, and sent him to jail after producing him in the court on Sunday, Hatpiplya Thana in Charge Kailash Solanki told News18.
The man even used to say, “Tere sath koi to ye sab karega hi to main kyun nahin kar sakta (Someone eventually would do all this to you, so why not me),” said the police.
Childline Dewas centre in charge Jairam Dewda said: “The girls are now kept with a local NGO and would be admitted to a residential school. Some of the relatives of the girls too have contacted us for their custody.”
The mother of the young girls had died in August last year due to cancer, the police said.