15-Year-Old Girl Accuses Father Of Raping Her Repeatedly In Mother's Absence

A man in India was arrested after his 15-year-old daughter accused him of raping her repeatedly while her mother was not at home.

The incident took place in Rajkot, a city in the western state of Gujarat. The accused, who worked as a pedicab driver, came home Saturday and beat up his daughter while she was sleeping. He allegedly then raped her thrice until the next morning, the girl told the police.

After the father left for work on Sunday, the girl borrowed a neighbor's phone to contact her mother, The Times of India reported, citing the police.

The girl informed her mother about the ordeal, following which the latter called "181 - Abhayam," which is a 24/7 helpline to help and empower distressed women in the state. The mother filed a complaint with the police also on Sunday night. The accused was arrested Monday and kept under quarantine as the authorities waited for his COVID-19 test result.

The police told The Times of India the girl's mother had left home last week to live with her parents following an altercation with her husband, who was intoxicated at the time. The girl had also accompanied her mother to the latter's parents' house, but the accused had brought the 15-year-old back home three days before the incident took place.

Authorities are currently investigating the incident, and the identity of the victim was not revealed.

India recorded 88 rape cases every day in 2019, according to a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released last year. The data showed the rape vulnerability of a girl or woman increased up to 44% in the last 10 years. The NCRB had also released a report in 2019, which said the accused were known to the victims in 93% of the total 32,559 rapes reported in the country in 2017.

Last month, in a similar incident, the police in the state of Haryana arrested a man for raping his daughter multiple times. The man sexually assaulted his 14-year-old daughter while his wife was away from home. “My daughter told me on Monday that her father used to sexually assault her on several occasions in my absence. He also threatened her with dire consequences if she revealed the matter to anyone and even told her that he will kill me and my two minor daughters and expel the four of us from the house. Her father had sexually assaulted her on March 19 last,” the victim’s mother told the police at the time.