The district police on Wednesday arrested a 55-year-old man at Kalligudi near Madurai for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl. The arrest came after the parents made a representation to Superintendent of Police V.Balakrishnan.
The girl’s parents, daily wagers, had left all their four children, including the victim, a Class II student, at home and gone for work on Saturday, when the incident happened. The children were playing outside the house when the mother left home.
When she returned home, the woman found the victim missing from the group of siblings. She went in search of her daughter, and found Vellaichamy, her neighbour, trying to physically abuse the girl, whose clothes had been removed, at a public place in the village.
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Advocate A.Rajini, who accompanied the woman and her husband to the District Police Office here on Wednesday, said the illiterate parents had gone to Kalligudi police station on the same day. “They lodged a written complaint with the Sub-Inspector of Police there,” she said. Though the police promised to arrest the accused, no action had been taken against him, she added.
Meanwhile, the family members of the accused had quarrelled with the parents over the police complaint made against him. The victim’s mother said, “His (Vellaichamy’s) wife told us that her husband had not committed any grave offence.
‘Has he murdered your child’, she asked.”
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The girl’s mother, who had acquaintance with R.Shenbagavalli, coordinator of Centre for Working Women in Tirunagar, had narrated the incident to her, following which the parents were taken to the advocate.
However, the police claimed that the parents had not filed any written complaint, but only asked them to warn the accused.
The Tirumangalam All Women Police have registered a case.