TIRUPUR: Nineteen days after the sexual assault of a four-year-old girl in Tirupur, the All Women Police-North on Tuesday arrested the victim's father for the crime and booked him under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The father had initially claimed that it was a stranger who had sneaked into the house and abused his child in the terrace. Now, Police report that he had sexually harassed other women in the area too.
According to a Police source, the four-year-old girl was allegedly assaulted in the early hours of November 1 on the terrace of her house. After the incident, the father -- S Ranganathan (33), a worker in a printing unit in the district -- claimed that the front door had been left unlocked for his wife who was to return late from work.
He said that his daughter came down from the terrace crying; on inquiry, he found that someone had sexually abused the child and fled. After the child was taken to government Tirupur hospital, left-wing activists and members of communist parties staged a protest over treatment for the girl being delayed.
It was after this that suspicion turned toward the father, who was acting suspiciously. A senior Police official, who did not wish to be named, told Express, "We started questioning Ranganathan but he did not reveal much about the incident; he just fabricated a story. He had also made the victim believe that the assault was done by somebody else and not him by telling her about the made-up incident again and again."
The Police then roped in ChildLine officials to interact with the child. Once she started speaking to them without hesitation, she informed them that it was her father who had 'misbehaved'. The victim's version of the event was then registered at the District Mahila Court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
"We had sent the blood samples of the victim and the accused of chemical examination. The accused has also been said to force his wife to have intercourse with him. He also reportedly flashed many women at the sanitary complex. This information was received from the victim's neighbours," the official added. The accused was booked under the POCSO Act, produced at magistrate court and lodged at Coimbatore Central Prison. The man also had a seven-year-old daughter.