Stepfather sexually abuses 7-year-old; flees to Kolkata

While the nation is up in arms against sexual offenders following the Delhi gang rape incident, on the night of January 27, a stepfather sexually abused his seven-year-old stepdaughter at their residence in Malvani, near Malad (West). Following the assault, the 37-year-old fled to Kolkata to evade arrest. Working as a real-estate agent, the accused married the victim's mother two years ago. The mother works as a bar dancer and had divorced the girl's father to marry the accused.

She was in Hyderabad during the incident. A police officer said, "The stepfather forced the girl to have unnatural sex with him and threatened to kill her if she informed anyone. When the girl objected to the act, the accused beat her up and told her that he was not her father." The incident came to light when the mother returned from Hyderabad on January 30 and her daughter told her about the ordeal. The victim's mother called 109 a child helpline number and narrated the incident. She was advised to register a complaint at the Malvani police station.

Following the complaint, a case of unnatural sex was registered against the stepfather and a special team was formed to nab him. "We told the mother to keep calling the accused on his mobile phone and convince him that no complaint has been registered against him so that he comes back to Mumbai. His mobile location indicates that he is in Kolkata," said Abdulrauf Shaikh, Senior Police Inspector of Malvani Police Station. "We have registered a case under Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code against him," he added.u00a0