delhi

Updated: Feb 22, 2019 08:33 IST

A 24-year-old sweeper was arrested from west Delhi’s Dwarka for allegedly raping and assaulting his minor sister for nearly three years, police said Thursday. The man had also impregnated his sister last September and then given her abortion pills, the 17-year-old girl has told police.

Stating that the crime was reported after the residents of a Dwarka flat, where the girl recently filled in for her mother as a domestic help, noticed injuries on her body and enquired about it, police said they have arrested the man and booked him for rape under sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The man works as a sweeper at a private bank in Dwarka. Until three years ago, he lived only with his mother. “Three years ago, he brought his 14-year-old sister to Delhi on the pretext of getting her admitted to a school. He did get her enrolled, but had been raping her all these years,” said a senior police officer.

When the girl resisted the abuse, the man would allegedly beat her her badly, leaving her with visible injuries. “Last September, the girl became pregnant. When she told her mother about change in her biological behaviour, the woman asked her to approach her brother for medicines. The accused man gave her abortion pills,” said the investigator.

However, the police are unsure whether the siblings’ mother was aware of the abuse. “We haven’t found any evidence against her so far, but we are investigating,” said the officer.

The pregnancy, meanwhile, forced the girl to drop out of school.

Last week, police said, she started working as a domestic help at a residential flat in Dwarka since her mother had gone to her village in Bihar. The employer noticed injuries on her body and asked her about it. “The girl was first hesitant, but then revealed it all. The employer then roped in an NGO which helped the girl approach the police,” said the officer.