Villagers threatening family of sexually abused minor: NGO

ARIYALUR: A five-year-old

dalit

girl, who was sexually abused, and her family members are facing life threats from the abuser and his supporters in Kumizhiyam village in

Ariyalur district

, allege Evidence, an

NGO

, in a fact-finding committee report recently.


The visit by the committee to the village also revealed that the villagers had covered up sexual abuse on the same girl child by a 21-year-old in February 2018 on the pretext of compromise.

The girl was abused when she and her eight-year-old sister had gone to attend nature’s call near a graveyard in the village on April 22. Rajadurai, 56, belonging to another community in the same village indulged abused the girl by touching her inappropriately.

The girl got managed to escape and told the incident to her mother immediately. When the mother confronted him, the mother alleged that the abuser threatened her with dire consequences calling by her caste name and intimidated her not to report the issue to the police.

The woman informed her husband and brought the matter to the Irumbulikurichi police on the same day. After a preliminary investigation, the police registered a case against Rajadurai under protection of children from sexual offences (POCSO) Act and criminal intimidation under IPC.

The police arrested Rajadurai and the court remanded him in judicial custody.

However, the issue got bigger as supporters of Rajadurai began threatening the family of the child.

The fact-finding committee, in its report, said that the family is living in constant fear of possible attack by the gang. They also petitioned the chief secretary, director general of police, superintendent of police, Ariyalur and several other officers demanding protection from the gang and registration of case against Rajadurai under the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act, 1989.

“Our visit unearthed the previous incident of the child being abused and villagers settling the issue through a

kangaroo court

. The youth himself wrote a letter of pardon for his crime. Now, they are facing the threats. Hence, the family should be given protection besides counselling to the girl and Rs 10 lakh compensation to the family,” said A Kathir, executive director of Evidence.