On 3rd April, a Chennai court sentenced Abbas Ali to life imprisonment for abducting and raping a 12-year-old minor girl. The incident took place in 2015. The victim reportedly disappeared with her mother following the incident, only to be found by the police after 10 years.
The victim was living with her family on the first floor of the house. Abbas, who was 41 at the time and the son-in-law of the house owner, abducted the victim and took her to Dindigul, where he raped and abandoned her.
The victim was rescued two days after the incident. Her mother and the victim disappeared after that, as they were repeatedly threatened. The family fell apart, and the mother-child duo started living under new identities, moving from village to village to stay safe.
The victim did not have access to counselling. She dropped out of school and took up daily wage work to survive. After 10 years, the MKB Nagar all-women police managed to trace her and brought her to court. Her testimony, despite hesitation and trauma, led to Abbas’s life sentence. The court also awarded Rs 15 lakh in compensation to the victim.
