NAGPUR, INDIA - A 13-year-old girl suffered silently as her own father raped her repeatedly for three years.
The girl's mother knew her husband's incestuous acts all along, but could work up the courage to stand up to him only after her father-in-law supported her.
The accused Shaikh Aseef Shaikh Habib, a taxi driver, was arrested on Monday night an hour after the mother reported the matter to Kalamna police.
Police said Habib "would not allow the mother and daughter to speak to neighbours. He would treat them as slaves."
Frightened and shy, the minor, a Std 8 student, was able to give a statement to the police only after hours of persuasion and counselling by woman police personnel.
Police said that although she didn't remember the date when Habib first raped her, she said it took place for the first time in 2010 when she was just 11 years old.
She stated that she was alone at home while her mother had gone to some relative's house when Habib forced himself upon her.
Since then, he had been repeating the assault on her.
The minor told police that she had alerted her mother only a few days after the sexual assaults started.
"Her mother fought with Habib over it but was threatened of dire consequences," said a cop, adding that Habib had threatened mother with divorce. Fearing for her children's future, she remained mum.
The incident was revealed before other family members last week when Habib and his wife had gone to their ancestral house at Bhandara. Habib picked up an argument with his wife as she didn't bring the girl to Bhandara.
Police said that Habib's father had been noticing a strained relationship between Habib and his wife.
On being questioned repeatedly, Habib's wife narrated her daughter's plight to him. The matter was then shared with the victim's uncle, who is a police constable. He then asked her to file a police complaint which led to Habib's arrest.
- NDTV
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