TIRUNELVELI: A 15-year-old girl, abducted by a man, jumped off the first floor of a police station during questioning and sustained fractures in both her legs. The 38-year-old married man, who had abducted her, was lodged in jail for the second time under the Pocso Act for the same offence.
The police said during questioning, the girl’s mother refused to take her back home citing her past conduct and requested that she be placed in a government shelter home.
“Upset by this, the girl managed to wriggle out from the hold of a woman police personnel sitting nearby and jumped from the first floor of the police station building. She sustained fractures in both legs and was admitted to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital,” the police said.
Sources said the girl, who had lost her father, was living with her mother in a town in Tirunelveli district. The suspect, who was living with his wife and children, had allegedly abducted the girl in January. He was arrested and jailed under the Pocso Act on February 9.
After coming out on bail, the man once again took the girl to Kerala on July 17. “Following mounting pressure from his wife, he brought the girl back to Tamil Nadu. Upon seeing the girl with the man, a relative of the suspect attacked the girl.
The man took her to a government hospital, from where the police rescued her recently,” sources added. Police clarified they had not exerted any pressure to send the girl to a shelter home, and that it was her mother who insisted on it.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on health department’s helpline 104)