A case of a father raping his own daughter has come to the notice in Maharashtra. A pastor not only raped his own daughter but let his brother do the same repeatedly as a result of which the girl became pregnant. Even more shockingly, police allegedly tried to help the rapists when the girl filed a complaint. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has directed necessary actions to be taken against the cops for infringing Juvenile Justice(JJ) Act.
NGO Legal Rights Observatory had tweeted about one pastor P J Sahu raping and impregnating his own daughter and police threatening the victim to withdraw the complaint. It had taken the issue to the cognizance of NCPCR and Maharashtra DGP. Later a complaint was filed against one policewoman M Patil who allegedly threatened the victim to withdraw the complaint.
As per reported by Opindia Pramod Joginder Sahu(48) and his brother Gauri Shankar Sahu(44) have been sexually abusing the 15year old girl frequently. While Pramod lives with his wife and 5 children, including the victim, in Nalasopara, Vasai, his brother Gauri Shankar lives in Kandivali, Mumbai.
The FIR copy shared by Opindia says that the girl was first raped on November 1 and was forcibly taken to their native in Bihar worrying that the girl would expose them. She fled from there and informed her elder brother, who works at a jeans manufacturing unit, and he helped her file a complaint against the duo.
“Nobody was there at home. My stepmother had gone out for some work, my elder brother had gone to the jeans manufacturing company where he works, and my younger brothers had gone out to play. I took shower and as I came out of the bathroom, my father who was sitting in the drawing room grabbed me and forced me onto the floor in the kitchen. He then raped me. Later my Uncle who was sitting in the drawing room arrived and brutally assaulted me”, the girl told police.
Her uncle, Gauri Shankar arrived at their house after Deepavali and after he left her father raped her many times. As per the girl’s accounts, he sexually abused her the day after Chaat Puja. Both men threatened her to not talk about it to anyone and that they would kill her brothers if she didn’t keep her mouth shut. They then took her to her aunt’s house in Thane where she told the latter about the abuse.
But her aunt also asked her to keep her mouth shut. The men raped her at the aunt’s house as well when the older woman was away. Then she was reportedly taken to their native house in Darbhanga to restrict her from talking about the abuse to anyone in the family. She was locked up in the house and forbidden from speaking to anyone.
However, the girl managed to escape from there on November 24 and contacted her older brother. He brought her back to Maharashtra and gave her the Childline number(1098). After she informed the Childline some members of the NGO arrived at her house and took her to be placed in a Child Care Institution (CCI) in Palghar. Meanwhile, API Manisha Patil of Mira Bhayandar police station in Vasai allegedly threatened and tortured the victim to make her withdraw the complaint.
Legal Rights Observatory filed a complaint against the policewoman for violation of the Juvenile Justice Act and POCSO Act. Another complaint against Mahendra Waghmare, a member of the Child Welfare Committee, was sent to NCPCR to compel the victim to remove the complaint against her father. Allegations of forcing the victim to undergo an abortion have also been levelled against Vasai police. The matter has been taken to the cognizance of NCPCR which sent a team to investigate.
Pramod Sahu was involved in another sexual abuse case in 2015. He was booked for sexually assaulting two minor boys in the area. Relatives of the boys had allegedly attacked him and damaged his garage following the incident. But he filed a countercase arguing that he was targeted because he was a Christian and put up a picture of Jesus in his workshop (Sahu is a welder). Nalasopara police had also issued notice to another pastor Bhaskar Thambi who went with Sahu to the police station with a mob.
