A sixteen-year-old class IX student of a government higher secondary school near Pochampalli in Krishnagiri was delivered of a male baby at the Government Hospital in Kaveripattinam on Wednesday morning.
She told The Hindu from the hospital that she was sexually abused by a local hooch trader Selvam for the past one year. After she became pregnant, she was threatened by him not to reveal her condition.
She was sexually assaulted by him when she was living with her grandmother at a coconut farm in a village near Arasampatti in Pochampalli taluk.
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Her mother, a widow, is a daily wage earner and was away in Chennai for the past few years.
After she became pregnant, the girl rarely attended school. She wrote the half-yearly examinations and did not turn up when the school reopened on January 3.
The school headmaster and other teachers found that she was pregnant when she came to school on January 7. They called her grandmother and advised them to go to a hospital. The girl had gone to the Primary Health Centre in Barur. But she was referred to the Kaveripattinam Government Hospital, where she was delivered of a male baby on Wednesday morning.
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Meanwhile, P.R. Sakthivel, State committee member of Manitha Urimaikkana Kudimakkal Iyakkam, a non-governmental organisation, visited her in the hospital. He told The Hindu that as per the girl's wishes, the baby would be handed over to an orphanage in Dharmapuri. He said his organisation will fight legally on behalf of the girl. The girl wanted to continue her studies, Mr. Sakthivel added.
Barur police have registered a case.