The Walancherry police in Kerala's Malappuram district has arrested a woman and her partner in a case pertaining to the sexual assault of the former's daughter. The duo has been arrested a year after the complaint has been filed. According to the Walancherry police they had been on the run.
While the man was arrested on Wednesday from a workshop while the woman was arrested on Thursday morning from the house they were staying in. The arrests come a year after the complaint was filed in October 2019. The girl was nine years old then.
The police said that the man is a relative of the girl. Both the mother and her partner have been booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act). The girl had been sexually assaulted between March and April in 2019. The complaint had been lodged at the police station after the mother and her partner left the girl’s home. According to the police the woman had an affair with the man. The sexual assault happened at the girls’ home.
The girl’s mother allegedly didn't try to prevent her partner from sexually assaulting the child although she was aware of the crime. She also allegedly threatened the girl from telling anyone about the crime. The mother has been booked under POCSO for concealing the sexual assault on the child.
“She threatened the girl saying that she would leave the house if she told anyone. The girl revealed the assault after her mother left with her partner,” Sub Inspector, Iqbal of Walancheryy police station told TNM.
The child lives with his father now.
The woman has also been booked under section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act (for assaults, abandons, abuses, exposes or wilfully neglects a child or procures the child to be assaulted, abandoned, abused, exposed or neglected) and 317 of the Indian Penal Code (whoever the father or mother of a child under the age of twelve years shall leave or expose a child with the intention of abandoning the child).
“The accused lived outside the state for some time and tried for anticipatory bail at the High Court after the complaint against them was lodged. They were not using mobile phones and lived in isolated places. The direction on the bail plea was delayed due to the pandemic. The court rejected the bail plea last month,” the officer added.