In June this year, the nation that prostrates itself before the prophetic Mother Goddess woke up to the horrifying reality of a 45-year-old man arrested by the Navi Mumbai police on charges of raping his daughter for six years since she was seven years old.
The accused, a fruit vendor, had earlier sexually assaulted his 17-year-old daughter as well, the police claimed. The victim, all of 13, told her teacher about being sexually violated, after attending a counselling session on child abuse in her school in Vashi, revealing in a letter to the class teacher, her gory ordeal.
“My father raped me and my mother is not helping,” the letter that was flashed in Mumbai’s local newspapers was ironical not just because of the scars she would probably carry all her life, but also because her mother had shielded the perpetrator.
Whenever my brothers weren’t at home, my father would take advantage of the opportunity and rape me inside my house, in front of my mother. After this, my mother would offer me some pills. He has been raping me since I was seven years old. Despite complaining to my mother, she refused to help me.
Victim’s Letter