Hyderabad: Shunned by his own family, a 15-year-old fights alone to have his father sent to prison for rape

HYDERABAD: A 15-year-old girl single-handedly sent Father to prison for repeatedly raping her and even went against her own family to ensure that she received justice. The survivor, a resident of the Old City, had been alone in a Police station two years ago and filed a complaint against her father for his ‘gande kaam’. She was 13 at the time, but her tender age did not stop her from sticking to her guns and speaking the truth.
No one in her family helped her during this ordeal.
On Friday, a city Court of the Special Judge for cases registered under the Law on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) sentenced her father and sent him to life imprisonment. The court also awarded the girl 500,000 rupees in compensation.

Lawyers and police say the survivor, the only girl in the family, showed remarkable courage under cross-examination by defense attorneys in the face of a barrage of questions.
Deputy Public Prosecutor A. Rami Reddy said that despite being sexually abused, blamed, stigmatised and isolated by her own family, she faced the questions in court with courage.
“Despite enormous pressure, the girl stuck to her statement against her father”
The girl, who attended a nearby school, walked into a police station one night in May 2022 and described in detail her father’s multiple acts and the lack of support she received from her family.
Hussaini Alam’s station house officer S. Surender told STOI that the girl was referred to a Bharosa centre for medical treatment and a case was registered on her complaint. Since she filed the case against her father, the girl has been living in a home run by the State Child Welfare Committee.

During the trial, the defendant and the family repeatedly emphasized that the girl had filed a false complaint because her father forced her to do sit-ups because she did not help her mother with the housework.
“Given her tender age, she cannot invent such a false story about a sexual assault on her own father unless such an incident had happened to her herself,” the court said in its verdict.
The accused also claimed that his daughter was not at home on the alleged day of the incident and that he had travelled to Odisha. However, the court pointed out that he neither mentioned the date nor the purpose of his trip, nor how he travelled to Odisha and returned to Hyderabad, nor any train tickets or any other person examined to substantiate his claim. “He has not produced any cogent or credible evidence to prove that he was not in Hyderabad on the day of the offence and that he did not commit the offence,” the court observed.
During cross-examination, the defence counsel said that the girl had filed the complaint at the behest of the police and that she had no idea where the police station was. The girl said that her mother had once shown her the police station when she dropped her off at school and she clearly remembered its location.
After the cross-examination was completed, the accused father made several attempts to dissuade her from her earlier statement and she was again called back for cross-examination. Despite the enormous pressure, the girl stuck to her statement that she had made to the police two years ago.