A Sinful Act By Sexagenarian
On that day, it was November 16, 2019. At 6 pm, a middle-aged woman with her daughter came to the local police station and complained, My name is Suma. My husband Ramesh, is working in a factory here. We live in rented house. We have two children. The first is a twelve-year-old son, the second is 8 years old daughter, studying in second grade at a local school. She goes to school at 8 am and returns home around 12.30 pm. As the school is nearby, I not only drop her to school every day but also bring her home from there. I make her lunch at home and put her to bed. Then I eat and lie down next to her and rest for an hour. She wakes up around 4‘o'clock. Then I give her milk and send her outside to play. Today I had lunch as usual and slept with my daughter. I was sleepy around 2.30 pm my mobile rang. Got up and received the mobile. When the younger sister put down her mobile from the village, my daughter who was next to me was nowhere to be found. I thought she must have gone to the toilet. But even after 10 minutes, when she was not found, I searched for her at home. She wasn't. I came out of the house to see if she had gone out, but couldn’t find her, got Panicked. I thought that she might have gone to her friend's house to play, but on her way there, my daughter was walking in front of me. She was walking very bleary-eyed. I ran and picked her up. My 8 years old daughter burst into tears. I took her inside the house and asked her what happened.
My daughter didn't speak anything. She was trembling. She showed her private body parts and it was hurting,' she said, when she was taken to the bathroom and examined, her body was bloody. There were incised wounds on the thighs. When Suma asked her daughter about wounds blood in thighs, she replied she went to friend Reshma's house to play, then Reshma’s grandfather took her inside the house and laid on top of her, she said. Panicked, Suma immediately phoned her husband and came to police station on husband’s advice. Arrest Reshma's grandfather Muhammad Nasir for raping her daughter and give us justice, requests victim’s mother Suma to police. Police rushed the victim along with her mother to a local hospital. There the girl explained what happened to her before a gynecologist. The doctor examined the girl in front of her mother and a female police officer. After examination, she confirmed that the girl was raped and gave a report. Doctor said that she had stored the traces of sperm in the girl's vagina for testing in the laboratory and handed over the sample to the police. The victim was admitted to the hospital as an inpatient for further treatment. The police returned to the station and registered a case of rape against the victim under the POCSO Act. When the police went to Mohammad Nasir's house, he was still at home.
When police reached Mohammad Nasir's house, he said he's 67 years old, retired from a factory, living in a two-room house with wife, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Nasir said that his 57-year-old wife had a stroke 10 years ago and could not get out of bed, adding that he was taking care of her. Both the son and daughter-in-law are working and the five-year-old granddaughter Reshma goes to nursery school and stays with him until her parents come home. Naseer adds that he didn't had sexual pleasure for the past several years, he accidentally committed a sinful act that day. He accepts his sinful act in front of police. Further he says, this afternoon the victim came to play with my granddaughter Reshma. As soon as she saw him, she asked “how are you grandfather”? and gave me a hug and a kiss. Then suddenly the sexual consciousness was aroused. Then I sent my granddaughter to get chocolate from the shop. After she left, I took the victim to the room and raped her. By the time Reshma came home, my longing was over. I have committed a heinous sin, arrest me and punish me. When his wife was questioned, she was not in a position to say anything. Reshma was interrogated, she narrated the events as she understood. Naseer's bedsheet was seized because it had blood and sperm stains on it. Later his underwear was also seized and he was arrested and subjected to medical examination. Doctors reported that Naseer was sexually active. They took his blood sample and sent it to the laboratory. Naseer was produced before a judge by the police. He went to jail as an undertrial.
The laboratory test, the DNA found in the victim's body and Naseer's blood matched. Apart from this, the victim's clothes and Naseer's clothes and bedsheets were also matched. After completing the investigation, the police filed a charge sheet against him and submitted to the court. Apart from his mother, Reshma and other witnesses, medical records were also presented in the court. At the beginning of the trial, the accused said that he did not commit rape, but by the time the trial ended, he told the judge that he had made a mistake and that he did not commit rape intentionally. Because of his wife's illness, he had not engaged in sexual activity for ten years. He requested judge to give him less punishment as he had not committed crime intentionally. Judge sentenced the accused to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, as all the evidence was against the accused and because the accused had committed a monstrous act on the little girl. The accused said that he did not know whether he would come back alive from the jail or not, that he had committed a great sin by forgetting for a moment and boarded the van going to the jail, asking his son and daughter-in-law to take care of the sick wife.
A report says that in 10% of the cases of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO), the accused are family members of the victim and in 45% of the cases, neighbors or relatives. So when Suma’s daughter used to go to Reshma's house everyday to play, the mother had to go there a couple of times to see if everything was alright. If mothers were not always careful about who their children were spending time with alone, children would be doomed.(1)
“Rape” the word familiar to everyone, because we listen it often. Rape occurs in India every 20 min as per report. Small children and woman are the main target in rape cases. Many people don’t even report to police in fear of becoming re-victim. In the aftermath of a sexual assault or rape, Victim can face extremely difficult and painful emotions and experiences. Every survivor responds to traumatic events in their own way. The effects of the trauma can be short-term or last long after the sexual assault or rape. . And society also doesn’t respect rape victims it causes psychological problems to victim. They start isolating them from everyone, depressed, feeling of hopelessness, loss of energy or interest in everything, and suicide tendency. Victim feel unworthy in society. Many children stop going to school and they isolates themselves from studies, games and other activities and they behave different from other kids. Parents and teachers in schools should speak about and teach proper names of body parts and appropriate and inappropriate touching and whom to call for help when they face sexual assault. Each and everyone should speak up when inappropriate behavior is reported and talk about sexual abuse. Instead of mocking a victim, society should help and support a victim. This boosts confidence in victim to survive a normal life after a bad incident.
Reference
1] Dr.D.V Guruprasad, 2023 October 22, “ವೃದ್ದ ಮಾಡಿದ ಪಾಪದ ಕೆಲಸ”, A Kshana, Vijayavani, Bengaluru, Page No-II
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