Raped for 7 years, teen speaks

Patna: A retired army jawan was arrested from Ram Krishna Nagar on Friday after his 14-year-old granddaughter recorded before court that he sexually assaulted her since she was seven years old.

The girl, a student of Class IX, said her mother ignored her appeals when she told her about the assault. The accused, identified as Ram Narain Prasad, and the girl’s mother were produced before court on Saturday and remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

The girl had opened up to her school principal on Friday about the years of sexual assault. Patna superintendent of police (west) Vishal Sharma reached the school with female personnel as soon as the principal informed them.

They took the sexual assault survivor to record her statement under Section 164 of CrPC. She told the court that her mother, in her 40s, ignored her sufferings when she complained to her. “Later I came to know that my mother had an illicit relationship with my grandfather,” she told the court.

She, however, revealed that her father had gone missing years ago, and since then Prasad looked after the family. “My mother perhaps couldn’t open her mouth as my grandfather’s pension was the only source of income to run the family,” a police officer quoted her telling the court. She informed the court that she sought her principal’s help when it became unbearable for her, while also apprehending the ill-treatment to be meted out to her two brothers and a sister – who too were minors.

Sharma, a 2013-batch IPS officer, told The Telegraph: “Initially she was reluctant to reveal the trauma she underwent over the years. But later she confided to being sexually assaulted by the grandfather since she was seven.”

Prasad has been booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act besides different sections of the IPC. The mother was arrested for abetment and the girl, Sharma said, sent for medical examination.

Patna High Court advocate Rajiv Ranjan Kumar Pandey said in such cases, the victim’s statement before court is enough to get an accused prosecuted.

The girl was sent to the aftercare home at Gaighat on court’s directive and, on Saturday, her brothers and sister were entrusted in the care of close relatives. “The school administration has promised to bear food and lodging expenses of the girl,” Sharma said.

Courtesy: The Telegraph