The girl was reportedly pushed into the sex trade by her relatives.
A 39-year-old Indian TV journalist has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Chennai.
He was arrested on November 30, 2020, by an all-women police station team for sexually assaulting a minor.
16 other people have also been arrested for the same case, which is one of an unidentified girl.
The list of arrested accused includes the girl’s six relatives, a police inspector, a BJP (government) functionary.
The girl was reportedly pushed into the sex trade by her relatives.
All the men that have assaulted her in the last two months will be identified and arrested by the Chennai police.
The accused journalist, Vinoba of Vinoba Nagar, is a reporter for a private TV channel.
According to reports, G Vinoba sexually assaulted the 13-year-old girl on three occasions when she was under the control of her traffickers.
Madhan Kumar, Sandhya and six others were arrested last week in connection with the case, along with inspector C Pugalendhi and a businessman Rajendran.
Vinoba was picked up from his house in Thandiarpet, based on the confession of the survivor.
A police officer dealing with the case stated:
“Vinoba lent money for interest to the main accused Madhan and his sister Sandhya and is very close to them.
“It is through that link that he sexually assaulted the 13-year-old girl three times in a period of two months, including inside the office of the BJP functionary.
“Whenever Vinoba visited Madhan, he preyed on the girl. The victim remembered him very well.”
The girl is a relative of one of the accused.
The young teenage girl who is from Perumbakkam was sent by her mother to her niece’s house in Vyasarpadi.
The girl was allegedly raped for the first time by niece’s second husband Madhan (the main accused) before she was pushed into the flesh trade.
The crime came to light after the survivor’s mother approached the police as the accused, Madhan did not allow the girl to meet her mother.
Finally, when the survivor met her mother, she narrated her ordeal and her mother filed a complaint with the police.
Based on the investigation, the police arrested Madhan Kumar, Sandhya, Shahitha Banu, Selvi, Maheshwari, Vijaya, Karthik and Vanitha.
During the probe, Sandhya allegedly told the police that the girl was sent to one of their clients Rajendran.
An inspector Pugalendhi had also sexually assaulted her, in exchange for not reporting the crime.
The accused had allegedly colluded with various brokers in the flesh trade to send the child to them at a weekly package of Rs 1.5 lakh (£1500).
The brokers then allegedly invited their regular customers to sexually assault the girl.
Police said a few more men are to be arrested who are related to the case.
Loading ...