Chennai: The city has been reeling under the impact of the news of the gang-rape of a 11-year-old girl with hearing impairment by 18 persons for seven months in the gated community at Ayanavaram.
Adding to the trauma is the manner in which the police have messed up the case in every possible way they could by keeping the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) out of the scene.
According to Juvenile Justice Act, any sexual abuse case involving children should be reported to district child welfare committees, which has been entitled with recording statement from the minor victims. But in the case of Ayanavaram incident and a few previous incidents, the police have restrained from seeking assistance from CWC in such sensitive cases.
“We should have recorded the statement from the child in the presence of investigation agencies so that the child will be saved from reliving the horrendous moments again and again. But the police recorded the statement for themselves and we don’t want to record separate statement as CWC does not want to remind the abuse that the child might have suffered for seven months,” a CWC source said.
CWC sources added that it could not even counsel the victim as their parents snubbed the assistance of the child welfare committee. “The parents told that they would arrange for the counselling for themselves. But we met the victim and her health is improving,” the source said.
Meanwhile, sources said that the act had mandated the investigation agencies like police to report the incidence of child abuse to the committee. “The act also mandated only CWC to record the statement from the victim and provide counselling,” the source added.
District CWCs are in extension and the government is yet to constitute new committees.The terrifying news that an 11-year-old girl had been sexually abused for nearly seven months in a gated community in Ayanavaram broke out on Tuesday and had led to the arrest of 18 persons. All the arrested persons were employees of the apartment ranging from life operators, security guards and electricians.
