15-yr-old girl reveals abuse by father for years during counselling

It was only after the girl was sent to a shelter home where she was counselled that she could bring herself to reveal the abuse she faced, an officer said.

An officer from a police station in the eastern suburbs said that the girl’s parents had separated after her father would fight with her mother frequently. After she left him, the daughter was left with her father. Abused, the girl would frequently try to run away from her house.

Eventually, her relatives sent her to a shelter home in Gujarat where she has been staying for the past few months. During counselling sessions at the shelter home, the girl started revealing about the constant abuse she faced by her father since 2021. The NGO, carrying out the counseling sessions, then took her consent and approached the police station under whose jurisdiction she lived earlier.

Based on her statement, the police registered a case of sexual harassment under sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection Of Children under Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and arrested her father on Saturday.

The accused was produced before a local court and remanded in police custody. The police will also record the girl’s mother’s statement as part of the probe.