A 10-year-old girl in India was allegedly raped by her stepfather for two years. The shocking incident came to light after the man's daughter-in-law caught him sexually assaulting the child.

After witnessing the incident, the woman filed a complaint with the police. However, no action was taken initially. The police registered a case under India's Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act only after a local politician intervened in the case, local media reported Sunday.

He is not yet arrested.

According to media reports, the unidentified accused, who worked in a brick kiln in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, brought the victim to his house seven years ago. The victim's biological parents also worked in the same kiln.

However, the accused is not a legal guardian even though he was referred to as the victim's stepfather.

He began sexually abusing the victim after she turned eight years old. The girl told investigators that the man used to rape her and threaten to kill her if she told anyone.

Rape cases in India have seen a spike in recent years and the numbers have doubled in the last 17 years, according to a report by the country's National Crime Records Bureau in December 2019. Another disturbing stat was that in 93.1% of cases, the accused were known to the victims.

Last month, a 22-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh allegedly raped and killed his 8-year-old neighbor. The accused abducted the minor girl after luring her with candies. The 22-year-old reportedly lived just 100 meters away from the victim's house.

Preliminary investigation revealed the accused abducted the girl and took her to an isolated area. After raping the girl, he strangled the girl to death. When the girl did not return home, her family started searching for her. Some people found the girl's body in an isolated place and alerted the cops.

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