A 29-year-old man who works as a priest at various temples was arrested by the Karunagapally police on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and abetting her suicide. the victim’s 49-year-old mother has also been arrested in this connection.
The police said that the priest, an active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was the woman’s paramour and he exploited that relationship to sexually assault the woman’s daughter who was a studying in Class 7 at a school near Karunagapally. Police identified the accused as Renju, residing at Alumkadavu, near Karunagapally.
Unable to bear the sexual assault from the priest, the girl committed suicide by hanging from one of the windows of her house. The police said that the girl was subjected to unnatural sex by the priest. Though the woman had objected to it, the priest continued with the assault by threatening the woman and the latter did make a complaint to the police or other authorities concerned.
After the suicide and on obtaining the post-mortem examination report the probe was directly supervised by the City Police Commissioner S. Satheesh Bino. The police said that it was while being engaged in priestly duties at a temple that he came into contact with the woman.
Dr. Bino said that following continuous sexual assault the girl had also developed serious health problems apart mental stress. The Assistant Commissioner of Police (Karunagapally), Siva Prasad, who arrested Renju said that the accused had illicit relationship with other women too. He was produced before the Karungapally Magistrate Court and remanded to the district jail here.
