india

Updated: Sep 22, 2019 08:13 IST

A 32-year-old Assam Police constable along with another 39-year-old man was arrested in the state capital for allegedly raping their 17-year-old niece over the years. The alleged crime came to light after the girl revealed her plight to her school teachers.

“We arrested two persons including an Assam Police constable after receiving a complaint that a 17-year-old has been sexually exploited over the years. Both the accused are victim’s uncles and have been booked on charges of rape and under relevant sections of the POCSO Act,” said Arunima Bhuyan, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Guwahati.

Bhuyan said it was a Guwahati based journalist Gautam Sharma who complaint to the All Women Police Station in Guwahati on Friday after learning about the crime.

According to the police, the girl recently confided in her teachers in a local school that she has been sexually assaulted over the years first by the husband of her father’s elder sister and subsequently by her father’s younger brother--an Assam police constable she was living with till recently.

“After her father passed away, she briefly lived with her mother who subsequently married another person. Then she was brought to the house of father’s elder sister. The girl claimed that her husband (39) assaulted her then. The aunt and the uncle separated after the issue came to light,” Bhuyan said.

Subsequently, her father’s younger brother, a 32-year-old constable with the Assam Police brought the girl to his house in Guwahati. “He also started sexually exploiting her,” said Bhuyan, referring to the complaint and the girl’s statement.

Another police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the 17-year-old was being sexually exploited at least since she was in class 8. The girl has been sent to a protection home on the orders of the magistrate, said police.