State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Telangana Police here have rescued a 16-year-old girl who suffered abuse at the hands of her stepmother.
The girl was taken to safety from her parent’s house at Anandanagar, Fatullaguda under LB Nagar police station limits on Wednesday. The minor girl’s stepmother Chamundeswari tortured her for nearly a year and a half, ever since her father Ramesh, a junior telecom officer, brought her home from an orphanage she was living in after her mother’s passing away. Ramesh married Chamundeswari in 2008 after divorcing the mother. The girl’s maternal uncles decided to admit her in an orphanage after her mother died. Chamundeswari has no children of her own.
“They treated me well initially,” the severely malnourished girl told Deccan Herald.
“After a few months, my stepmother started to beat me with rods and rubbed salt after pouring acid on my face. She made me eat food mixed with phenyl and stomped me. She even made me drink Harpic,” the girl added. Rescuers, who followed a tip-off from a neighbour, were shocked by her condition as they found her dishwashing at her father’s place.
Her frail body had several burn marks suspected to be caused by cigarette burns, besides infected gashes and pealing skin. The police also suspect sexual abuse by her father.
“(Dad) never stopped her when she beat me with iron rods in front of him. Now I am unable to stand up straight as my back hurts. Dad says I am not his child. He probably wants me dead. Please do not send me back (home),” the girl said sobbing.
Chamundeswari denied she ever abused the minor. “Her boyfriend from the orphanage Raju has done this all,” she told police, adding that he visits her every day and rapes her.
The police did not believe Chamundeswari’s version and arrested her. The Commission asked LB Nagar police to initiate action against Ramesh and Chamundeswari, while the girl is receiving treatment at a private hospital in LB nagar for septicaemia.
“She will be admitted to a government welfare home after her recovery,” member of the Commission Achyuta Rao said. “Several childless couple and NGOs are approaching us for adopting (the girl).”