In a shocking case of child sexual abuse, the Thindivanam all-women police have arrested 8 men for sexually assaulting two minor girls, aged 7 and 9, multiple times for over two years. All the accused are known and are cousins of the girls, who are siblings.
Speaking to TNM, Villupuram SP S Jeyakumar said, “All the accused were known to the girls. The children are with the Child Welfare Committee and are being counselled for their traumatic experience and the men will be sent to judicial custody.”
According to reports, the children were staying with their maternal grandparents in Tindivanam, following the separation of their parents. The mother had remarried and was living in Gorimedu in Puducherry along with her husband and child, who is an infant.
It was only during her recent visit did the mother find out that her children were sexually assaulted by their relatives. The mother reprimanded the men and took her children to her home in Puducherry. The girls had been enrolled in a school in Kathirkamam last month.
According to a TOI report, the children were lured with chocolates by the accused, all of whom are aged between 22 and 37. The two minors were sexually assaulted multiple times for a period of over two years.
The crime came to the attention of the police only when the girls told their teachers at their new school in Puducherry about the incident. The teachers immediately reached out to the Puducherry-based child helpline Udhavumkarangal. A TNIE report states that during a medical examination conducted at Jipmer, bite marks, scars and signs of sexual assault were found on the girls.
The Puducherry Child Welfare Department then filed a report with Villupuram Child Welfare Committee after which a probe was launched. A report was submitted to Villupuram District Police Office based on which Tindivanam all-women police station (AWPS) registered a case and arrested eight men in connection with the crime.
An FIR has been filed against the eight men under IPC 376 (rape) and multiple sections under the POCSO Act. The police are on the look out for two more accused.
Source: The News Minute