Ulhasnagar: parents booked for allegedly letting daughter be abused over a Rs 50,000 debt

The case

Police in Ulhasnagar booked a couple and a family friend on Saturday for the alleged sexual abuse of the couple's 16-year-old daughter — a case in which the girl claims her parents allowed the abuse because they owed the man Rs 50,000.

According to the complaint, the family borrowed the money from Nisar Khan (40), a fruit-seller who was friendly with the family and had been living with them, to buy a room. The girl — a Class VIII student — alleges that when her parents could not repay the loan, Khan began abusing her about two years ago, and her parents supported him rather than stopping him.

How it surfaced

The girl confided in a teacher last August. When the teacher confronted the parents, the girl says, they stopped sending her to school and sent her to their native village in Uttar Pradesh to avoid police action.

The school principal, Anju Singh, then approached a local NGO, which took the matter to the Thane Child Welfare Committee. The committee pressed the Vithalwadi police to act; when police reportedly refused to file a complaint without the victim being present, the CWC issued summons forcing the police to contact the UP police and bring the girl back. Her statement was recorded by the CWC and the police on Friday.

The action

Based on her statement, police on Saturday morning booked all three accused under IPC sections 376 (rape), 354 (molestation), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (common intention). The victim's father has been detained; her mother and Khan are absconding. The case has been transferred to the Kolsewadi police station, where the abuse allegedly began. The girl has been sent to a child welfare centre, and a medical examination was scheduled.

Senior Inspector Chandrakant Deshmukh of Vithalwadi police said initial investigations revealed the girl's mother had been involved with Khan and had first forced her daughter into the relationship.

The system stumbles

The timeline raises difficult questions: the girl's school and the CWC had to fight to get the police to register the case at all, and the parents had months to move the victim out of the city. All of the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Archive summary, February 2013, based on reporting by The Times of India.