en years ago, Anita (name changed) was a five-year-old girl without too many worries in the world. Today, at 15 years of age, she lives in a Children’s Home in Govandi with no one to call her own, after her mother made her register a complaint of sexual assault against her father to settle a personal score.
Anita’s parents got divorced in 2007, and the court granted her custody to her mother. She would visit her father occasionally, and her association with her father angered her mother.
The constant division of loyalties between her parents, however, was just the beginning of her trouble.
Anita’s plight came to light earlier this month when the Parksite police were investigating a complaint of rape, which, they later learned was fake. Anita went missing from her aunt’s house in Vikhroli in Mjmbai’s eastern suburbs on January 14. Her aunt and mother approached the police, and a case of kidnapping was registered against unknown persons.
On January 19, her father brought her home safe and sound. He told the police that she had come to stay with him as she was missing him. The father and daughter stayed at his house in Ahmednagar, where he manages a small farm for a living. The police recorded his statement as well as Anita’s, and the case was closed.
However, on January 28, Anita’s mother brought her back to the police station and Anita told the police that her father and another man, who she did not know, had sexually abused her during the four days that she had spent at his residence. The police registered a complaint of molestation under the Indian Penal Code as well as sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (PCSOA), and sent a team to her father’s residence in Ahmednagar.
“We found some of the victim’s jewellery in her father’s house, as well as some of her clothes in the farm, which was in keeping with the victim’s narration of the offence. However, we found her overall demeanour suspicious. She was too scared and nervous all the time, and while we initially thought that she was traumatised after being sexually assaulted, we soon started having some doubts,” said an officer at the Parksite police station.
Finally, after repeated cajoling by female police officers, Anita broke down and told them the truth. She said after she ran away to stay with her father, her mother had decided to end her association with him.
For several days, Anita was allegedly beaten and tortured till she agreed to file a false complaint against her father.
Her mother, along with her aunt, then travelled to Ahmednagar and planted her clothes and jewellery in her father’s house when he was out, the police said
“After the revelation, we approached the Child Welfare Committee, as the victim’s mother was no longer a fit guardian for her. The victim was sent to a Children’s Home while the CWC began its own inquiries. It was during this inquiry that it came to light that the victim had been molested by a male friend of her mother who now stays with them,” said Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni.
The CWC directed the Mumbai Police to register an FIR against Anita’s mother, her friend, and her aunt. “We registered the FIR against the trio on Friday. They have been booked for sexual harassment, assault, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code as well as sexual assault under the PCSOA. Inquiries are under way,” Mr Kulkarni said.
CWC probe revealed that victim was being sexually abused by a male friend of her mother
