A 15-year-old teenage girl who was kept in solitary confinement by a woman in her house in Purasawalkam, Chennai and gang-raped by five men for five-days consecutively, finally managed to escape and return home on Thursday.
The girl was allegedly being forced into a sex racket by three women. The police, acting on the victim’s mother’s complaint, arrested the three women. The three accused have been identified as Sabeena (31), a resident of Annai Sathya Nagar, Mubeena Begum (37), of Pulianthope and Nisha (36) of Purasawalkam.
According to reports, Sabeena and Mubeena Begum lured the teenager with the promise of getting her a lucrative job while Nisha detained the girl in her house and forced her into sex trade.
The victim, along with her mother, who is a daily wage labourer, lives with her grandmother in Pulianthope. On July 3, the girl had left her house after an argument with her grandmother. On July 6, her mother lodged a missing person complaint at Pulianthope station.
According to the investigation conducted by Pulianthope police, the victim knew one of the accused Sabeena for some time and had gone to meet her on July 3, after walking out of her home. The two later met Sabeena’s neighbour Mubeena, who promised the victim a job. Shabeena and Mubeena then took her to Nisha’s residence, where she was locked in a room.
Over the course of the next few days, five men allegedly entered the room and raped her, a police official confirmed. “She managed to escape from the room and reached her house on Monday,” added the officer.
All the three accused already have cases of prostitution pending against them, the police were quoted in The Times of India as saying.
The all-women team of Pulianthope police station has collected mobile phone numbers of the five men who allegedly raped the victim, while the arrested women are being questioned about the details of these men.
Meanwhile, the girl has been sent for medical examination to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The new amendments will include more stringent punishments including the death penalty in cases of aggravated sexual assault against a minor girl or boy.