Panipat boy, mother booked for sexually assaulting minor
Police have launched probe after the father accused his wife, her son of abusing his 12-year-old daughter
The police in Panipat district have booked an 18-year-old man and his mother for allegedly sexually harassing a 12-year-old girl, with the case now also drawing the attention of the state women’s commission.
According to the girl’s father, the accused — his second wife and her son, the victim’s stepmother and stepbrother — had been torturing the child for the past six months in Tehsil Camp area of Panipat. The police have registered a case under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and are investigating the matter.
Usha Priyadarshi, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women, said she took cognisance of the case and directed the Panipat Superintendent of Police to take strict action.
“As the matter came to my knowledge, I tried to contact the SP, Panipat, but could not get through. After that, I contacted the SHO, Tehsil Camp, and asked for the details of the case. Later, I spoke to the SP, Panipat, and directed him to initiate strict action,” Priyadarshi said.
She added that an FIR had been lodged and that the accused woman, her 18-year-old son and her six-year-old daughter were on the run. Police are trying to arrest them, she said.
In his complaint to Tehsil Camp police, the victim’s father said he married in 2006-07 and has three children — two sons and a younger daughter, aged 12. He said he divorced his first wife about 10 years ago because of a family dispute and married a divorced woman in his neighbourhood in 2019. The woman had a 14-year-old son from her previous marriage and later had another daughter.
The complainant, who said he works as a driver and is often away on long trips, said he returned home three days ago, when his daughter told him that her stepmother had been beating her with sticks, keeping her out of school and locking her in a room with her stepbrother, Raju, who sexually assaulted her. He alleged that the stepmother threatened to kill the girl if she resisted.
He said his daughter told him that the abuse had been continuing for the past six months and that she had tried to disclose it several times before, but was silenced by her stepmother.
He then went to the police station and reported the matter.
Police said the case was registered against the woman and her son under relevant sections of the BNS and the POCSO Act. Following the registration of the FIR, the mother and son fled the house.
Bhupender Singh, the Superintendent of Police, Panipat, said a case had been registered on the basis of the victim’s complaint and that counselling for the child had also been carried out in line with protocol.
“The accused involved in harassing the minor girl will be arrested soon,” Singh said.
