Mumbai:
Fed up with his wife's alleged inability to fulfil his sexual desires, a monster dad from Bandra turned to his 18-year-old daughter for gratification.
What began as a series of molestation attempts close to a year ago eventually led to the man raping his daughter at knifepoint and driving her to attempt suicide, all this, while the mother remained a mute spectator.
Pinky (name changed), who is studying commerce in a reputed college in the western suburbs, finally gathered the courage to speak out against her father, Shabbir Khan, and filed a complaint with the Nirmal Nagar police on Wednesday.
The main driving force behind her filing the complaint was that she did not want her two younger sisters to meet the same fate.
In the complaint, Pinky has stated that Khan and his wife began living separately five years ago.
Nearly a year back, Khan started barging into their house in Naupada, Bandra (East), to try and molest Pinky claiming that her mother was no longer capable of fulfilling his sexual desires.
Khan's lust had driven him to such ruthlessness that, in March, he allegedly forcibly entered the house when Pinky was alone and held her at knifepoint.
He dragged her to the bedroom by her hair and allegedly raped her despite her loud protestations. When the girl confided in her mother, she turned a deaf ear and said it was more important to safeguard the family's reputation and Pinky's future prospects.
Last month, Khan barged into the house again and told Pinky that she could either give in to his demands or consume the poison that he had brought along with him.
Pinky did not hesitate even for a moment before consuming the poison and was admitted to the Bhabha Hospital for a week.
Khan had allegedly even offered Pinky a house, money and a secure future if she gave in to his sexual demands on a regular basis.
The hospital stint convinced Pinky that enough was enough and she decided to approach Vijay Thakur, secretary of Bharastachar Virodhi Sangha, who also offers legal assistance to the poor people in the area.
"The poor girl was shivering when she approached me a few days back. She told me all that her father had done to her and said she did not want her two sisters to meet the same fate. She seemed traumatised and the events have caused her to develop hatred and fear of not just her father, but of men in general," said Thakur.
"I only want justice for the girl and will be very grateful to God if she gets it," he added.
With Thakur's assistance, Pinky wrote an 11-page letter to the deputy commissioner of police (Zone VIII), the assistant commissioner of police, a senior police inspector of Nirmal Nagar and a senior police inspector of the Social Service Branch (SSB).
Thakur also helped her register a complaint with the Nirmal Nagar police on Wednesday. An FIR was registered after Pinky was sent to the Nagpada police hospital for a medical exam. Police teams have swung into action to arrest Khan, who runs a transport business, and is absconding.
"We have registered a case under molestation, rape and criminal intimidation," said a police official.
"The investigation is on and, therefore, I cannot reveal anything on this issue," said Senior Inspector Prashant Shankar Bagade of the Nirmal Nagar police.
"A father raping the daughter is the worst kind of incest. It could have disastrous consequences for the girl. The victim could lose faith in men and the entire concept of families. Such women develop distrust towards men and find it difficult to have a warm relationship with the opposite sex. They also develop a phobia of intimate relationships," said Yusuf Matcheswala, Psychiatrist, Masina Hospital.