Family friend kidnaps and sexually abuses minor sisters in AP, threatens them into silence

On November 3, a man named A Aravind kidnapped two minor sisters from Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The 25-year-old man was a neighbour and a close friend of the girls’ family. Six days later, the police managed to trace Aravind to Ongole and brought the abductor and the girls, who are 15 and 13 years old, back to Visakhapatnam on November 9. 

But it was only a week after they were rescued that the mother learnt that the man had molested her two minor daughters.  

According to the Pendurthi police, Aravind, who owns a lorry transport business, had allegedly threatened to run the children over with a lorry if they spoke up about the sexual abuse. Yet, the 13-year-old eventually opened up to her mother, who then spoke to both the sisters and informed the police about the alleged abuse. 

According to Pendurthi Circle Inspector (CI) Satyanarayana, Aravind’s wife Sunitha (name changed) and the girls’ mother Padma (name changed) had been friends for at least a year.

While Padma works at a tailoring job, Sunitha regularly attended a beautician course. Padma had separated from her husband and has been raising her daughters by herself. 

Satyanarayana said that Aravind would often pick up the girls after school and drop them home. “Padma and Sunitha were very close, and they thought Aravind took good care of the children. On November 3, Aravind had a fight with his wife and left their house in a rush. He went and picked up the two girls as well. The women thought that the children would be able to convince him to return home,” the CI said. 

According to the police, the two women did not hear from Aravind and the children for three days. Then, on November 6, Padma and Sunitha approached the Pendurthi police, as Aravind had switched his phone off soon after leaving with the children. 

“Even then, their mother kept saying that he was like an uncle to the children and was reluctant to file a complaint,” the CI said. It was Sunita who finally filed a complaint, based on which, the police registered a case of kidnapping under section 365 of the Indian Penal Code. 

The children were then traced to Ongole, where the accused had been staying with the children at a hotel. “When the children were brought back on November 9, we asked them why they did not contact their mother for so long. They said that Aravind had confined them to the hotel room and hadn’t allowed them to use his phone,” the CI said.  

Police say that while they did ask the children if Aravind had harmed them, they denied it at the time. Although the mother asked the police to let Aravind go, as the children had returned home safely anyway, the police arrested him for kidnapping, and released him on bail a couple of days later. 

Days after the girls returned home, on Sunday, Padma’s younger daughter opened up to her mother, telling her that Aravind had indeed abused her and her sister, said Satyanarayana. 

“Eventually, the elder sister opened up and said they were abused even before they were abducted. She said that they were abused on multiple occasions, when Aravind used to drop the girls home from school and had been alone with them,” the CI said. 

Later, based on the mother’s complaint, the police added a rape case under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and arrested him again on Sunday. The accused has now been sent to remand, and results of a medical examination on the children are awaited. 

Why it’s important to talk to children about sexual abuse

Since most cases of child sexual abuse tend to involve abusers who are known to the victim, children need to be preemptively educated about what constitutes abuse and how to communicate it to parents or guardians whom they trust, says Vandhana, a clinical psychologist. 

“Abusers usually include people whom the child sees on a daily basis, like relatives, neighbours or teachers, who threaten or coax the children into silence. The child is either threatened, or confused into thinking that they are being taken care of,” Vandhana says. 

She also said that parents are often in denial that their children can be abused. “They often hear about such incidents on TV and only show sympathy. They may not realise that all children can be vulnerable to abuse, including their own. Child sexual abuse is not limited to any particular socioeconomic category, which is another false perception,” she added.

Vandhana said that conversations with children around sexual abuse need to begin as early as possible. “There are ways to communicate these basic safety skills even to children under three years of age. Parents can use code words to preemptively educate children, to tell them beforehand that when abuse occurs, they’re likely to be threatened or convinced to think they’re enjoying the abuse. That way, they are more likely to communicate in time,” she says, adding that children who repress such experiences also often end up feeling guilty or experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).