Crimes against children, which were being swept under the carpet till now, are coming into the open after the French consulate officer Pascal Mazurier was accused of allegedly raping his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter last month. Mazurier was arrested and remanded to judicial custody after his wife Suja Jones on June 14 lodged a complaint against her husband under Sec 376 IPC for allegedly raping their daughter.
On July 7, the KG Halli police station registered a criminal case (Crime no. 278/2012) against 45-year-old Mohammed Aslam under Section 354 (assault or using criminal force with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly sexually assaulting his 12-year-old stepdaughter after the victim’s mother lodged a complaint against him. Aslam, the owner of a petty paints shop in Govindpur under the K.G.Halli police station limits, was arrested and later remanded to judicial custody. “He had been sexually abusing the girl for a long time, but she couldn’t raise her voice because he threatened to thrash her mother,” said an official source. This is the third case of child abuse, including the murder of a three-month-old Baby Afreen in April this year by her father Umar Farooq, who brutally assaulted the infant because he wanted a son and not a daughter. Farooq was arrested under Section 302 (murder) IPC and remanded to judicial custody.
In February this year, the K.G. Halli police had registered a case of rape and murder (Section 376 and 302) IPC against a 16-year-old boy Somesh for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, daughter of daily wage labourer Venkappa in a temple auditorium. Somesh, a school dropout and son of a coolie, was arrested under the Juvenile Justice Act. He was later released on bail.
On June 16, a seven-year-old girl – daughter of Basavaraju, a mason from Raichur – was raped and murdered by her father’s friend Nagaraj (28). Her body was found a day later in the Nellurhalli lake near Whitefield on the outskirts of the City. Nagaraj confessed to the crime and was arrested.
A week later, yet another minor girl was rescued from an attempted rape by a 20-year-old security guard – Abdul Khaleel Bovaiah near UB City. The accused was handed over to the police. On July 12, 15-year-old Shwetha, a domestic help, allegedly committed suicide after she jumped from the third floor of the building where her employers lived.
“Children have always been vulnerable targets of crime but since most victims belonged to economically weaker sections, the crimes were never highlighted. There’s greater sensitivity towards crime against children after Mazurier’s case,” said a senior police officer.