The Bhuij police in Satara district on Friday have traced and arrested six persons from a caste panchayat who repeatedly assaulted a 54-year-old man and his 14-year-old daughter.
The man was beaten up for repeatedly raping his daughter while the daughter was assaulted for not speaking up against the crime committed on her.
The matter came to light only after a citizen shot a video of the incident where an individual is seen repeatedly mercilessly hitting the 14-year-old rape victim with a stick on her back as a punishment for not speaking up against her father’s crime.
According to Bhuij police, the video went viral late on Thursday soon after the incident took place. The police started investigating the case and nabbed the six accused till Friday night. The incident occurred on Thursday in Panchvad area of Wai taluka.
The caste panchayat learnt that the man was raping his teen daughter for the past few months. They learnt this from the victim’s brother. Instead of informing the police, the panch committee chose to give them their brand of punishment.
As a punishment both the father and daughter were assaulted with a stick and fined Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 respectively for their crimes. Superintendent of Satara, Abhinav Deshmukh made a team, which within 24 hours traced the culprits seen in the video and nabbed them.
The one mercilessly hitting the girl in the video has been identified as Arun Dilip Jadhav. Rest are Shivaji Pawar, Datu Chavan, Rajaram Pawar, Jiva Pawar and Sarjerao Chavan. They will be produced in court on Saturday. They have been booked under IPC sections for causing hurt with dangerous weapon, extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt and criminal conspiracy. The committee will be made an accused and audience will be witnesses.
The father has been booked for rape under IPC and POCSO. He is an alcoholic and has two wives. The girl’s mother died six months ago. She has two sisters and a brother along with four stepbrothers and a stepsister. The victim is not pregnant, as her urine test has come negative but a sonography on Saturday will be conducted to ascertain the same. She has been admitted to a hospital and is said to be out of danger. The victim is currently being counselled.
