Kochi:
In yet another shocker, a six-year-old girl from Kurumpady in Kerala's Ernakulam district was allegedly sexually abused by her 40-year-old father for six months after being forced to drink alcohol.
Police have registered a case against the man, who is absconding, following a complaint by the girl's mother that he had been sexually abusing the child for the past six months.
Police said the case has been registered under Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act and section 328 of IPC (giving liquor to a minor).
Ajeesh Ramachandran, psychiatrist at the Government District hospital, Aluva, who treated the child, told Press Trust of India that the girl had stated that her father used to give her alcohol every day before sexually abusing her. She has also named 4-5 friends of her father who also abused her, he said.
The incident came to light after the child was first taken to a paediatrician and then to a psychiatrist at a hospital in nearby Aluva when she showed some behavioural problems.
After some counselling sessions, the child informed Mr Ramachandran that she had been sexually abused by her father and few others. The mother then decided to file a police complaint.
The girl's parents are separated. The mother was living in orphanages with her two minor daughters and had a year ago, urged the father to take care of one of the daughters. The man took the six-year-old child with him six months ago.
The latest incident comes close on the heels of two similar instances from Kottayam and Kannur districts.
In Kottayam, police arrested a man who had allegedly sexually abused his two minor daughters aged 13 and 15 for two years, while at Dharmadom in Kannur, the father, 15-year-old brother and an uncle of a 13-year-old girl had been arrested last month on charges of raping her.