Police arrests cousin accused of raping minor in Silchar; “Traced in Karimganj,” SP

An astonishing incident was brought to light yesterday after a mother lodged a complaint accusing family member of sexually assaulting her 8-year-old. Her brother-in-law’s son who is the cousin of the victim was absconding. Police officials first traced the accused’s father and detained him.

The police complaint was lodged at Malugram Town Police Post yesterday afternoon. The officer in charge of the Police outpost had said that they are tracing the prime accused.

Last night (today morning), Superintendent of Police, Cachar Vaibhav Chandrakant Nimbalkar informed that the accused has been traced and arrested by the Police.

SP Cachar, informed, “The accused of POCSO Act case in Malugram has been arrested from Karimganj by Cachar Police team led by IC Malugram. Strong legal action will follow.”

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences, or POCSO, (Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to provide for stringent punishment to those engaging in sexual crimes against children, death penalty in cases of aggravated sexual assault, besides levying fines and imprisonment, to curb child pornography.

The Police is collecting all the medical and forensic pieces of evidence. At the same time, the accused is being interrogated and the SP said that based on the investigation a case diary will be prepared. “This case involves a minor and therefore, the Police will not reveal any details that might lead to the breach of privacy of the victim,” said SP. “All I will assure is that strong legal action will follow.”

The Silchar resident, in her complaint, writes that she got to know about the molestation first in April. She alleged, her 8-year-old daughter was assaulted and molested when she was not at home. “Son of my brother-in-law threatened her that she must not open her mouth or else her parents will be killed. But after we got to know about the incident, we asked him and he apologised. He said that he will not do anything like this ever again.”

The Das family was adamant that the mother should not lodge an official Police complaint. She says, “Again last month, he did something similar. He lured her with chocolate and took her at a dark corner. He then forced himself on her and that is when my 8-year-old started screaming. Hearing that, I rushed to see what happened and found that he was trying to unbutton my daughter’s pants. As he saw me, he rushed away from the spot and said that if we discuss this matter, we will get beaten.”

As the “Prestige” of the Das family was at stake, the mother said she was insisted against lodging a complaint. “Last week my daughter started bleeding while urinating. We rushed to the doctor and she has been admitted to a private nursing home. The doctor advised us to lodge a Police complaint. It took the blood of my daughter to make me realise that I have done a mistake and should have lodged the complaint way back. Son of my brother in law is absconding and the Police said they will chase him down,” the mother added.

Please Note: We have intentionally kept the name of the mother, victim, accused, treating doctor and hospital undisclosed. According to the Supreme Court guidelines, in the case of a sexual assault on an minor, no detail should be shared that could lead to the identity of the victim. In this case, the victim and accused belong to the same family, and therefore we have kept the names secret. Requesting our readers to respect the privacy of the minor and not disclose any details.