Nagpur: A sordid tale of sexual abuse of three girls ‘adopted’ by a former scientist in the city brought to mind the scary tale of Austrian Josef Fritzl , who raped his daughter for 24 years in captivity. In the case that came to light on Wednesday, the eldest daughter, 16, is learnt to have told police that she was exploited since she was in Standard 1, while the one aged around 11 too has been facing sexual abuse for last many years. The youngest daughter is just six-and-half-years-old.The 72-year-old Maqsood Ansari, a former assistant scientist with a top institution in the city, allegedly exploited his three adopted daughters by threatening them for last several years. Dhantoli police arrested Ansari on Wednesday and charged him with rape and provisions of Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act, 2012.Ansari, who married at least twice but is never known to have fathered a biological child, had apparently adopted his daughters at tender ages on the pretext of bringing them up and educate them. Police have now discovered that Ansari had been forcing himself upon the daughters regularly.The rape survivors have been rescued from their residence at Ajni Chowk and shifted to the government shelter. Neither of Ansari’s two wives stayed with him, which made matters worse for the three young girls. The eldest survivor, whom the elderly scientist had also offered to marry, was the first to walk out and share her plights with others. Shockingly, no one, including a NGO claiming to be working for children and also working with police department, offered to help the girls.DCP, Zone-I, Deepali Masirkar , who was instrumental in bringing the case to fore, rescued the rape survivors after she was alerted by NGO Save The Children India. The NGO was approached by the eldest daughter through a friend’s family, sources said. “An NGO is providing means for the girls to continue going to their schools,” she said.Masirkar, appealed to society to wake up to such dangers within the four walls of the house. “The girls probably presumed that such exploitation was part of a man’s normal behaviour, until they learnt otherwise from the rest of the society. Later, it must have been the fear of losing a stable life and shelter that stopped them from opening up,” she said.Masirkar also said the police will also probe how the girls were adopted. “In the initial stage, police could not find any adoption documents during the house search and the culprit too is not forthcoming about any legal information on the adoption,” she said. Senior PI Rajendra Mane is investigating the case.(With inputs from Vishakha Virkhare)