The family of a 15-year old sexual assault survivor have rallied round her to assure that she is not in stigma and that she is not to be blamed for the crimes of her biological father.
The family said she has been living through a horrendous nightmare for the past three years.
The man, a 43-year old was arrested on October 3 and is in police custody in East Khasi Hills district.
Speaking to the Highland Post, one of the aunts of the survivor said that the incident has shattered the family and torn their hearts into pieces.
“But we have no doubt at all that we want this man severely punished for what he did. It is a heinous crime. A father is supposed to care and protect the daughters but he has instead exploited her like this. We demand that he been locked up in jail for ever,” she emphasized.
“But we have to assure our daughter that we do not blame her at all, she is now 18 and has gone secretly been going through a most terrible time throughout these three years, it is unimaginable what she’s been through,” she said.
Family members said that the girl had gotten pregnant when she was 15, but they had no clue who had fathered the child because she only consistently maintained that “the man is from the city and I could not see his face as it was wrapped in black” and threatened to kill her if she told her mother.
They did not even know she was pregnant till her mother and other family members suspected her pregnancy after which her mother took her to a local practitioner who confirmed that the girl is pregnant. This shocking information blew them into a frenzy to know who had fathered the child.
Since then the mother and the aunts have been trying to find out details, but could get nothing out of the girl even after she gave birth and the child is now 2 years old.
Till the last week of September when the girl showed suicidal tendencies, her mother again probed and finally on September 30, 2022, she revealed that the father of the shattering secret that the father of her 2-year old child was her own biological father.
Her mother broke down along with the rest of the family members. “We did not know what to do at first. She told her mother at around 9 pm at night. We did not know where to go, who to consult. But we knew that this could not be hidden or suppressed. We filed an FIR against him. He used to work in the coal mines, we told the police,” said one of the aunts.
She said that the child has undergone the worst ordeal a woman can ever face. “There’s no sense in keeping quiet about this. We have to ensure that the criminal, no matter its father or whoever is punished, given exemplary punishment so that no father will dare to sexually use their own daughter,” she said. She urged people not to stigmatize such survivors but give them support to continue their lives with dignity and courage.
