Chennai: 11-year-old hearing-impaired girl gangraped for 7 months by at least 22 men

An 11-year-old hearing impaired girl was gangraped in the apartment she lived in by at least 22 men including security guards, lift operator and plumber over the last seven months.

Police have arrested 18 persons in this connection and are on the lookout for few others involved in the gangrape of a child at a gated community at Ayanavaram in Chennai.  The incident came to light when the victim, a class seven student, told her elder sister about the trauma she was going through. Her sister informed their parents who in turn filed a complaint with all women police at Ayanavaram.

A senior police officer said that the perpetrators allegedly drugged her before she was sexually assaulted in various places inside the apartment premises at various days for the past seven months. The officer said that miscreants had videotaped the girl nude and threatened to release it if she told someone about it.

In the complaint, the victim’s mother said the girl was first raped by the lift operator Ravi, 66, on January 15 at an isolated place in the apartment complex. “A few days later, Ravi brought two men from outside who were under influence of alcohol raped the girl and videotaped her,” the police said, adding that the men would wait near the gate for the girl to return from school and they would take her to an isolated place in the apartment where several flats are vacant to rape her.

The victim’s father who runs an electronic shop and her mother is a homemaker. They did not find anything unusual until the girl opened up to her sister who is studying in Delhi and came home on leave on July 13. Police recorded the victim’s statement in a Mahila court on Monday after arresting 18 suspects who were booked under various provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) act. The 18 men were in the age group of 23 to 66 years and they were engaged by two private companies – FOCUS, a security firm and UK Facility Services.