New Delhi: Deep in sleep after the day’s rigorous work, a mother failed to hear her daughter’s gagged sounds while the 12-year-old struggled to keep away her ‘drunk’ father, who ‘raped’ her on a fateful night.
When the mother woke up the next morning, she found blood-stained clothes of her daughter in their single room apartment in Noida.
A report quoted police as saying that the incident occurred around 1 am on Friday when the accused, who was in an inebriated condition, was sleeping in the same room as his wife, daughter and two sons.
“My husband is used to drinking. He works in the same garment factory as I do but attends duty only four days a week. That night, we were all sleeping on the floor, while my husband was on the bed as he was heavily drunk. Later, he picked up the boys from the floor and made them sleep on the bed,” a report quoted the mother as saying.
The report further quoted her as saying that after exchanging places with his sons, the man laid next to his daughter, where he allegedly gagged and raped her. The next morning, when the woman questioned the girl about her blood-stained clothes, she said that she got hurt as the minor’s father had ‘threatened to kill all four of them’.
However, sensing something suspicious, the woman informed the Phase 3 police station, following which a medical examination was conducted at the district hospital on Saturday and rape was confirmed.
The 35-year-old accused, whose identity is being withheld to protect the rape victim, was arrested and booked under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Meanwhile, the police is also probing the mother’s role as she was sleeping in the same room and yet was ‘unable’ to hear any sound or movement.
Claiming innocence, the woman said, “I reach home around 8:45 pm every day. I have to work since my husband does not work regularly. I was fast asleep and could not realise what had happened.”