Two days after a petition was heard in the Madras High court of a 17-year-old's alleged rape charges against several people, including IPS officers, Sivaganga All Women’s Police arrested Sivaganga town sub-inspector Shankar, an autorickshaw driver and friends of the girl’s brother on Wednesday, according to The New Indian Express report.
This move came after the girl’s advocate and social activist T V Vincent pressed charges against the All Woman police station in Sivaganga for not taking any action against the accused and for hushing up the case. The police complaint was made by the girl’s neighbour Selvi to the child helpline on June 4.
The Times of India report states that the four people who have been arrested are R Shankar (55) who is the Sub-Inspector of Sivaganga Town Police Station, the victim’s relatives R Senthil (36) and M Suresh (32) and D Aravind, a resident of Madurai.
The petition said that she was raped by her grandfather, a tailor in the neighbourhood, an auto-rickshaw driver, her brother’s friends, shopkeeper and even the man who provided water can at her house. The petition also claimed that she was forced to consume drugs by those who abused her.
According to the petition, the motherless girl was living with her father R Muthupandi and her brother M Karthick. Her father, who was an alcoholic, raped her frequently. Her brother, who used to come home on weekends, also abused her. The girl was also raped when she approached the Sivaganga town police station inspector Shivakumar and his subordinate SI Shankar. Both her father and brother were arrested, but her brother is out on bail now.
Namachivayam, a bus conductor who was her father’s friend also used to rape her and made her undergo two abortions- one in a hospital in Sivaganga and another in Santhi clinic in Vandiyur in Madurai, the petition said.
All the four were produced before Judicial Magistrate Deepa who remanded them in judicial custody for 15 days. Vincent had also asked in his petition to investigate the higher police officials who were involved in the case.