Chidambaram: A two and a half year old girl has been hospitalized in a bad shape after her father’s drinking partner allegedly sexually assaulted her in a bush close to her house at Killai, about 13 km from here.
Doctors at the Cuddalore government general hospital, to where she was rushed when found unconscious and bleeding in the bushes late Friday night, said the child had been “stabilised after much effort” and was now out of danger, though still in great pain.
Inspector Peer Basha of Killai station told DC that a farm coolie, Palanichamy, 45, was arrested and remanded to custody on charges of abducting the child and sexually assaulting her. He was consuming liquor along with the victim’s father, also a farm coolie, at the latter’s house late Friday evening. After the girl’s father got drunk and slept, Palanichamy grabbed the child sleeping nearby and disappeared into the bushes, inspector Peer Basha said.
A couple of hours later, the child’s mother realised that she was missing from her bed and raised an alarm. A search with torch lights led them to the unconscious girl in the bushes a short distance away. “We found Palanichamy’s thundu (towel) near that place. He had disappeared after the crime, but we managed to nab him on Saturday”, he said.
“Time and again, we have been screaming from rooftops that parents should be extremely careful while allowing relatives and friends to have access to their girl children. A good majority of the villains in child abuse cases have turned out to be men known to the family”, said noted lawyer and civil rights campaigner Sudha Ramalingam. “And this case is yet another example of how alcoholism ruins families, particularly hurting the women and children at home”, she added.
