Man assaults minor daughter for refusing to buy him cigarettes; court rejects bail plea

The police said they registered a case against Sajeesh under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act based on the girl’s statement.
For representational purposes (Express Illustrations)
For representational purposes (Express Illustrations)

KOCHI: The father of a 14-year-old girl has courted big trouble after allegedly assaulting her as she refused to buy him a pack of cigarettes. Sajeesh, 41, of Edathala, is facing arrest as his attempt to secure an anticipatory bail backfired when a local court, on January 13, dismissed the plea saying his cruelty “deserves no leniency”.

The police said they registered a case against Sajeesh under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act based on the girl’s statement. The evidence so far corroborates Sajeesh’s assault on his daughter who has been staying with him for the past four years following her parents’ divorce, a police officer said.

The police said Sajeesh used to insist that she purchase cigarettes for him from a shop near their house. On November 30, 2021, when she refused to obey, he assaulted her and coerced her to go to the shop and purchase the cigarettes. He also sent her out of the house at night, closing the doors on her.

The girl was forced to remain outside the house till her mother came from Tripunithura at around 10pm. The assault left the girl with partial loss of sight in her right eye, and pain and swelling on her neck and right cheek, said the officer.

The Edathala police registered the case on December 3. During the hearing, the accused pleaded innocent, saying that it was a false case foisted on him at the instance of his divorced wife. But Additional Sessions Judge G Girish dismissed the plea observing: “It is of no doubt that the above atrocity perpetrated by the accused upon his teenaged daughter cannot be taken as a trivial matter.

It is also not possible to accept the argument that a false case has been foisted against him at the instance of his divorced wife who is the mother of the complainant. Of course, such tutoring and compulsion could be expected if the child was of small age, and if she had remained under the care and protection of the estranged wife of the petitioner at the time of incident.”

“The criminal act of physical and mental torture perpetrated by the accused upon his daughter deserves no leniency,” Justice Girish said.

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