Malappuram: A 47-year-old man has been arrested at Valancherry in this north Kerala district for allegedly sexually abusing his four minor daughters for years.

The girls were aged between 10-17 years, police said on Saturday.

The man was taken into custody on the basis of a complaint of the girls.

“Later we recorded his arrest," a senior police official said.

"The teachers and the school authorities informed the Child Protection Unit at Mancherry about the crime, who in turn passed the information to us,” the officer said.

The crime came to light after one of the children revealed to her school teachers about the ordeal that she and her sisters had been undergoing at home.

The children were staying and studying at a charitable boarding school at Perinthalmanna as they belong to a financially backward family. “The father allegedly used to abuse them when they came to their rented home during holidays,” police said.

Police said that their mother was unaware about the harassment.

The 17-year-old girl, who came back home as she had completed her schooling, was later shifted to the hostel of the same boarding school, the official said.

Four cases have been slapped against the accused under various sections of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Indian Penal Code, police added.