Gittikhadan Police, Nagpur, on Saturday arrested a 45-year-old man, who molested his 13-year-old daughter since childhood. The man was arrested post a complaint by his wife, who caught her husband red handed in 2016. The mother could not complain to the police in 2016 itself fearing that filing a case would ruin her daughter’s reputation. When Nation Next spoke to PI Rajkamal Waghmare of Gittikhadan Police Station, he narrated the whole story to us.

? When the girl was in KG, she once complained to her mother about the father touching her in the bad way. The mother did not believe it. The father then beat up the daughter and told her to tell her mother that she was just joking. The beating instilled a fear in the daughter’s mind that if she told anything to her mother, she would not believe it and her father would beat her up.

? When the daughter grew up, her father in 2013, started molesting her again. The daughter could not tell her mother but she was able to muster enough courage to tell the principal of her school about the molestation. The principal got in touch with the mother and told her everything. The mother did not believe it and instead told the principal that her daughter had done the same thing many years back.

? Call it motherly instinct, one day in 2016, the mother told her husband that she’s going out for some work and left the daughter behind at home with the father. The mother hid in the house and caught her husband red handed trying to molest the minor girl. She threw her husband out of the house thereafter.

? Scared that a complaint might ruin her daughter’s reputation, the mother did not complain to the police thinking that if a report is filed, her daughter’s name would come out in public. Meanwhile, the daughter slipped in depression and developed suicidal tendencies. She even slashed her wrists a couple of times. The hospital where she was being treated, informed a childcare helpline about the incident.

? In January 2018, the mother with support from childcare helpline approached the Gittikhadan police officials with a newspaper article in hand. The article was about a man who molested his daughter and was arrested by the police. The article did not have the victim’s name. Realising that her daughter’s identity would be safe, she filed a complaint with the Gittikhadan Police on January 20, 2018.

? The Gittikhadan Police arrested the accused on the same day and booked him under section 376 (2) of the Indian Penal Code.