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Journalism of Courage
Pune City Police has sent a team to Uttar Pradesh to arrest the grandfather and uncle of a 17-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and sexually abused multiple times by them as well as her father over the past six years.
The abuse came to light after the girl told the internal committee set up by her college, to address sexual harassment complaints, about being raped by her family members. Police have already arrested the girl’s 49-year-old father from Pune.
A First Information Report in the case was registered at a police station in Pune on Wednesday, immediately after the girl shared her ordeal with members of the committee — formed under the Vishaka guidelines — during one of its sessions earlier the same day.
According to the FIR, the girl was allegedly raped by her uncle and sexually abused by her grandfather for a period of two years when she was at her native village in UP. After moving to Pune with her parents, she told her father about the abuse.
But her father also started sexually abusing and raping her, according to the FIR.
According to police officials, the father of the girl used to send her mother out of the house on various pretexts and, in her absence, rape and sexually abuse his daughter.
The father of the girl was produced before a court in Pune on Thursday. He has been remanded to police custody till November 21, said an officer from the police station.
“The grandfather and uncle of the girl are in Uttar Pradesh. We have sent a team to arrest them and also conduct a probe into various aspects of the case.” said the officer. Police have invoked various provisions of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to molestation, rape and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
“Counselling support is being provided to the girl. The case has been referred to the Women and Child Welfare Department,” the deputy commissioner of police, under whose jurisdiction the case was registered, had told The Indian Express earlier.
The Visakha guidelines form the basis of the The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, or POSH Act, which was passed in 2013 and lays down procedures for lodging a complaint, including setting up internal committees.
