A 53-year-old man, arrested four years ago for raping his own daughter for six years, was convicted on Friday. Investigating officers said that forensic reports and corroborative evidence helped nail him.
According to the Aarey police, the accused was arrested in 2015 after the victim, who was 16-years-old at the time, broke her silence.
“The girl told her elder sister that their father had first forced himself on her when she was ten years old, and had continued to exploit her ever since. He would repeatedly keep threatening to harm her if she told anyone about it and the victim managed to stay silent for six years before the sustained abuse became too much for her to take,” an officer who was part of the investigation said.
The officer added that both sisters then confided in their mother who, after a lot of deliberation, approached the Aarey police. The victim was immediately subjected to medical tests and a detailed statement was recorded from her, after which the police arrested her father and charged him with rape under the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The police subsequently filed a chargesheet in the case in 2017, and on Friday, a special POCSO Act court in Dindoshi held the father guilty and charged him to 12 years of imprisonment.
Police Inspector Arun Pokharkar, Mumbai Crime Branch, who was at the time Police Inspector (Crime) at the Aarey police station said, “We had presented detailed medical reports as well as statements from around ten witnesses which helped the case a lot. Police Constable Rupali Jadhav with the Aarey police, who was the court liaison in the case, also took tremendous efforts to ensure that all relevant material was submitted in time and in proper format.”
Senior officers said that cases involving family members often fall through in court because not everyone is able to go through the prolonged agony.
“Even if the crime is a heinous one like rape, it is the psychology of the survivor to try and blame themselves, due to which cases are sometimes withdrawn. The support of the people around the survivor is of paramount importance in such cases. The investigating team faces the challenge of ensuring that the victim does not budge from her stand and this has to be handled sensitively,” a senior officer said.
