Mother of sexual abuse victim surrenders

N K Leela, mother of a girl who was sexually exploited by K R Pete Block Education Officer A B Puttaswamy Gowda, surrendered to the police on Monday.

During interrogation she has admitted that she had forced her daughter to prostitution. “Since I was in need of money to build a house and run the family, I had borrowed Rs 75,000 from Puttaswamigowda. I had loaned money from others too,” Leela has told the police.

The victim was studying in sixth standard in a school. “But I used to introduce her to the customers that she was studying in tenth standard. I had come to know about Puttaswamy Gowda from Geetha, a friend. He used to come twice a week to Mysore for the past one and half years and used to pay Rs 3,000 to 4,000.

My daughter did not want to be a prostitute, but I had forced her into it for money. I had threatened that I would stop her from going to school if she did not co-operate. That was why she had agreed,” reads her police statement.

Leela was produced before the court on Monday and has been sent to judicial custody.